Meanings
- Make sure you have a thing before you decide what to do with it.
Have you never thought of marrying again? […] Mr. Gibson had thought of this advice several times since it was given; but it was a case of "first catch your hare." Where was the "sensible and agreeable woman of thirty or so?"
1866, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 9, in Wives and Daughters, London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Origin
Supposedly from an error in The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, where "catch" should have read "case" (i.e. remove the skin); however, this is apocryphal.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
first catch your hare. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/first%20catch%20your%20hare
“first catch your hare.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/first%20catch%20your%20hare. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “first catch your hare,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/first%20catch%20your%20hare.
Source: first catch your hare on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.