Meanings
- alternativeAlternative form of don't count your chickens before they're hatched.
The rare privilege of being pampered will delight you, but don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched.
1996, Leslee Becker, “Correspondence”, in The Sincere Cafe: Stories, Minneapolis, Minn.: Mid-List Press, →ISBN, page 1212 more examples
“Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched,” Frank put in. “We’ll have to catch him first, and that won’t be easy.”
1971, Franklin W. Dixon [pseudonym; Andrew Edward Svenson], “Prince Cuthbert”, in Danger on Vampire Trail (Hardy Boys Mystery Stories; 50), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, page 103“Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched,” I warned her. “Sure it seems like we’ve won, but you never know when something bad might happen.[…]”
2017, Eric Bower, “Luckily My Mouth Was Too Full of Muck”, in The Magnificent Flying Baron Estate (The Bizarre Baron Inventions; 1), New York, N.Y.: Amberjack Publishing, →ISBN, page 152
Cite this entry
don't count your chickens before they've hatched. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/don't%20count%20your%20chickens%20before%20they've%20hatched
“don't count your chickens before they've hatched.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/don't%20count%20your%20chickens%20before%20they've%20hatched. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “don't count your chickens before they've hatched,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/don't%20count%20your%20chickens%20before%20they've%20hatched.
Source: don't count your chickens before they've hatched on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.