Word.ws English Dictionary

don't count your chicks before they hatch

don't count your chicks before they hatch is the alternative form of don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

Meaning of don't count your chickens before they're hatched

Proverb

don't count your chickens before they're hatched

  1. One should not depend upon a favorable (and typically overoptimistic) outcome to one's plans until it is certain to occur.
    • [...] Make Fools believe in their fore-seeing / Of things before they are in Being; / To swallow Gudgeons ere th' are catch'd, / And count their Chickens ere th' are hatch'd, [...][1663 (indicated as 1664), [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras. Canto III.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678...

Questions about don't count your chicks before they hatch

What is don't count your chicks before they hatch the alternative form of?
Don't count your chicks before they hatch is the alternative form of don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

Words near don't count your chicks before they hatch in the dictionary

  1. don't count your chickens
  2. don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched
  3. don't count your chickens before they're hatched
  4. don't count your chickens before they've hatched
  5. don't count your chicks
  6. don't count your chicks before they hatch
  7. don't count your chicks before they're hatched
  8. don't cry for me, Argentina
  9. don't cry over spilled milk
  10. don't cut yourself on that edge
  11. don't diet, try it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: don't count your chicks before they hatch (page history and authors); don't count your chickens before they're hatched (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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