Word.ws English Dictionary

early crow

early crow noun: a confident prediction of an outcome that later proves incorrect.

Noun

early crow (plural early crows)

  1. (Australia, informal) A confident prediction of an outcome that later proves incorrect.
    • Brandon Smith has been maligned for a lot of this season, but his recent form since returning from a thumb injury has helped the lead the Roosters to an unlikely finals berth. While the big-money long-term deal has opened the door for criticism, there may have been a bit of an early crow.2023 September 5, Liam O'Loughlin, Chris Danks, “The Fair Dinkum Department Round 27: NRL finals hopes, Brandon Smith's form and Rabbitohs halfback question”, in Sporting News, retrieved 08 Jun 2025
    • A state treasurer has declared mission accomplished on getting the budget back in the black but experts warn she might have gone the early crow.2025 May 19, Callum Godde, “'Wafer-thin' budget surplus won't fix debt problem”, in Australian Associated Press, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2025
  2. (Australia, informal) A confident early prediction (whether or not the outcome later proves incorrect).
    • I’m going the early crow, Gather Round will be a roaring success and the envy of states around Australia, leading to another bidding war for the sophomore outing in 2024.2023 April 12, Michael Mkoka-Nicholson, “Sorry, Melbourne. Adelaide’s footy festival will be a roaring game-changer”, in Advertiser, Adelaide, archived from the original on 03 May 2026

Forms of early crow

pluralearly crows

Origin of early crow

From horse racing slang, in reference to race callers prematurely declaring that a horse will win.

Questions about early crow

What does early crow mean?
Early crow means a confident prediction of an outcome that later proves incorrect.
What part of speech is early crow?
Early crow is a noun.
What is the plural of early crow?
The plural of early crow is early crows.

Words near early crow in the dictionary

  1. early childhood
  2. early childhood education
  3. early childhoods
  4. early closing
  5. Early County
  6. early crow
  7. early crows
  8. early day motion
  9. early day motions
  10. early days
  11. early door

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: early crow (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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Cite this entry: “early crow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/early_crow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.