Word.ws English Dictionary

be a hundred years too early

be a hundred years too early verb: to be so immature and unprepared as to have no hope of achieving an accomplishment.

Verb

be a hundred years too early (irregular; see conjugation of "be")

  1. (idiomatic, slang) To be so immature and unprepared as to have no hope of achieving an accomplishment.
    • Don't make me waste my time! You are a hundred years too early to be an opponent worthy of fighting me!

Forms of be a hundred years too early

irregularsee conjugation of "be"

Origin of be a hundred years too early

Calque of Japanese 百年早い (hyaku-nen hayai). This Japanese idiom was a hyperbole derived from 十年早い (jūnen hayai, “you are ten years too early”).

Questions about be a hundred years too early

What does be a hundred years too early mean?
Be a hundred years too early means to be so immature and unprepared as to have no hope of achieving an accomplishment.
What part of speech is be a hundred years too early?
Be a hundred years too early is a verb.

Words near be a hundred years too early in the dictionary

  1. BDUF
  2. BDW
  3. bdóte
  4. be
  5. be a devil
  6. be a hundred years too early
  7. be a man
  8. be a one
  9. be a poet and not know it
  10. be able to
  11. be able to count on one's fingers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: be a hundred years too early (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-be a hundred years too early.ogg.

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