count chickens

present singular third person counts chickens · participle present counting chickens · participle past counted chickens · past counted chickens

1. To trust in something good that is not yet certain.

   “Don't count your chickens,” Millie said to him.

   2006, H. Levitt, The Furies, →ISBN

   4 more examples

   I was starting to count chickens, but then I had always worked on the principle that it was good to talk oneself out of being tired, or pessimistic.

   2001, Victor Smith, Open Cockpit over Africa, →ISBN, page 89

   She says sometimes she'll take me in as a partner. Ah, I'd like that—but there, you mustn't count your chickens.

   2002, Miss Read, Thrush Green: A Novel, →ISBN

   First sheer relief welled and bloomed, like a tide, and then buzzing excitement took over, a little breathless, a little gulped, to be resisted, to be controlled, because nothing was certain yet, because disappointment was always possible, because chickens should not be counted.

   2018, Lee Child, Past Tense, →ISBN, page 280

   At the risk of counting chickens, let's look beyond the end of these strikes. How does rail now recover public trust and confidence?

   2023 April 5, Philip Haigh, “Pay deal a positive result”, in RAIL, number 980, page 3

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see count, chicken.