Word.ws English Dictionary

better an egg today than a hen tomorrow

better an egg today than a hen tomorrow proverb: it is better to have a sure thing now than a possibility of more later.

Proverb

better an egg today than a hen tomorrow

  1. It is better to have a sure thing now than a possibility of more later.

Synonyms of better an egg today than a hen tomorrow

Origin of better an egg today than a hen tomorrow

Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora, from Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais.

Questions about better an egg today than a hen tomorrow

What does better an egg today than a hen tomorrow mean?
Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow means it is better to have a sure thing now than a possibility of more later.
What part of speech is better an egg today than a hen tomorrow?
Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow is a proverb.

Words near better an egg today than a hen tomorrow in the dictionary

  1. Bettendorf
  2. Bettenhausen
  3. Bettenhausens
  4. Bettens
  5. better
  6. better an egg today than a hen tomorrow
  7. better and better
  8. better angels
  9. better angels of one's nature
  10. better angels of someone's nature
  11. better ball

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: better an egg today than a hen tomorrow (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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