count chickens
verbEtymology A reference to the proverb don't count your chickens before they're hatched
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:
- She says sometimes she'll take me in as a partner. Ah, I'd like that—but there, you mustn't count your chickens.2002, Miss Read, Thrush Green: A Novel, →ISBN:
3 more examples
- “Don't count your chickens,” Millie said to him.2006, H. Levitt, The Furies, →ISBN:
- First sheer relief welled and bloomed, like a tide, and then buzzing excitement took over, a little breathless, a little gulped, to be resisted, to be controlled, because nothing was certain yet, because disappointment was always possible, because chickens should not be counted.2018, Lee Child, Past Tense, →ISBN, page 280:
- At the risk of counting chickens, let's look beyond the end of these strikes. How does rail now recover public trust and confidence?2023 April 5, Philip Haigh, “Pay deal a positive result”, in RAIL, number 980, page 3:
2
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see count, chicken.