Word.ws English Dictionary

be careful what you wish for

be careful what you wish for phrase: the desired outcome may not be as desirable once it has been attained.

Phrase

be careful what you wish for

  1. The desired outcome may not be as desirable once it has been attained.

be careful what you wish for meaning in Arabic

be careful what you wish for in Arabic

Translations
تَجْرِي الرِّيَاحُ بِمَا لَا تَشْتَهِي السُّفُنُ tajrī r-riyāḥu bimā lā taštahī s-sufunu

Questions about be careful what you wish for

What does be careful what you wish for mean?
Be careful what you wish for means the desired outcome may not be as desirable once it has been attained.
What is be careful what you wish for in Arabic?
Be careful what you wish for in Arabic is تَجْرِي الرِّيَاحُ بِمَا لَا تَشْتَهِي السُّفُنُ (tajrī r-riyāḥu bimā lā taštahī s-sufunu). See Be careful what you wish for meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is be careful what you wish for?
Be careful what you wish for is a phrase.

Words near be careful what you wish for in the dictionary

  1. be born last week
  2. be born yesterday
  3. be bothered
  4. be called
  5. be careful
  6. be careful what you wish for
  7. be cool
  8. be cruel to be kind
  9. be damned
  10. be done with
  11. be down with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: be careful what you wish for (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-be careful what you wish for.wav.

Cite this entry: “be careful what you wish for.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/be_careful_what_you_wish_for. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.