Don’t (Never) count your chickens before they hatch is a kind of proverb, and it is advice worth remembering; it means “do not make firm plans for something that might not actually happen, or don’t make assumptions about anything that doesn’t hasn’t happened yet.”
Many of the oldest proverbs in English are warnings beginning with don’t or never.
Hatch is what eggs do in nature, when they break open to let out baby chickens (chicks). Never count your chickens before they’ve hatched thus means “never rely on something that has not yet come to be.” For example, you should not tell people you have a new job until the contract is signed. Do not plan to invest money that you don’t have yet. That would be counting chickens before they’re hatched.
In other words, an egg is an expectation—that something will happen in the future. The chickens are what you expect to have in the future. Counting the chickens means telling yourself what you have. But you can’t count them before they hatch! Another similar saying is don’t jump the gun.
This saying was first recorded in poetry by the Englishman Thomas Howell in 1570. It is a very well known and often used phrase.
More Examples of the Phrase “Don’t Count Your Chickens” in a Sentence
- Don’t count your chickens before they hatch or write cheques that can’t be cashed.
- “But I don’t count my chickens until I hear them clucking in the barnyard”.
- Your plans may be amazing and you no doubt honestly believe they can be made to work but don’t start counting your chickens just yet.
- In heavyweight boxing, you can never count your chickens before they hatch, so one fight at a time.
- Put another way, don’t jump the shark, count your chickens before they hatch or get ahead of your skis.