Word.ws English Dictionary

bird in the hand

bird in the hand is the ellipsis of a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Meaning of a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Proverb

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

  1. A sure thing is preferable to the mere chance at something more.
    • It is more sykyr a bryd in youre fyste
      Than to have thre in the sky above15th c., John Capgrave, Life of St Katherine, Bodleian MS Rawlinson poet. 118, Bk. II

Questions about bird in the hand

What is bird in the hand the ellipsis of?
Bird in the hand is the ellipsis of a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Words near bird in the hand in the dictionary

  1. bird hide
  2. bird house
  3. bird houses
  4. bird in a nest
  5. bird in the bosom
  6. bird in the hand
  7. bird ingestion
  8. bird ingestions
  9. bird nest
  10. bird nests
  11. bird of ill omen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bird in the hand (page history and authors); a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush (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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