Word.ws English Dictionary

counting chickens

counting chickens is the present participle and gerund of count chickens.

Meaning of count chickens

Verb

count chickens (third-person singular simple present counts chickens, present participle counting chickens, simple past and past participle counted chickens)

  1. To trust in something good that is not yet certain.
    • I was starting to count chickens, but then I had always worked on the principle that it was good to talk oneself out of being tired, or pessimistic.2001, Victor Smith, Open Cockpit over Africa, →ISBN, page 89
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see count, chicken.

Questions about counting chickens

What is counting chickens the present participle and gerund of?
Counting chickens is the present participle and gerund of count chickens.

Words near counting chickens in the dictionary

  1. counting angels on pinheads
  2. counting calories
  3. counting cards
  4. counting cell hemocytometer
  5. counting cell hemocytometers
  6. counting chickens
  7. counting coup
  8. counting down
  9. counting frame
  10. counting frames
  11. counting glass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: counting chickens (page history and authors); count chickens (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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