look before you leap
Meaning: Think carefully before acting.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Read the lease twice before signing; look before you leap.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A proverb recorded in English from the 14th century and familiar from Aesop's fable of the fox and the goat in the well.
Other ways to say this
- Dutch: De kat uit de boom kijken — literally: To watch the cat out of the tree
- Catalan: Anar a pams — literally: To go by hand-spans
- Japanese: 石橋を叩いて渡る (Ishibashi o tataite wataru) — literally: To tap a stone bridge before crossing
- English: see which way the wind blows
More idioms — Daily Life
- love is blind — People in love do not see the faults of the one they love.
- word gets around — News and rumors spread quickly from person to person.
- Rome wasn't built in a day — Important things take time.
- better late than never — It is better to do something late than not at all.
- be afraid of one's own shadow — To be very timid and easily frightened.
- a blessing in disguise — Something that seems bad at first but turns out well.
More English idioms
- blush to the roots of one's hair — To go very red with embarrassment.
- not see beyond the end of one's nose — To have a narrow outlook and ignore anything beyond one's immediate concerns.
- shut the stable door after the horse has bolted — To take precautions only after the harm is done.
- many hands make light work — A job is easier when many people share it.
- kick the cat — To take out one's anger on someone weaker or innocent.
- right under one's nose — Very close, yet unnoticed.
From our proverbs
- After rain comes fair weather. — Hardship is temporary; patience through difficulty leads naturally to better conditions.
- Small rain lays great dust. — Gentle persistence dissolves entrenched problems that seem immovable through force alone.
- Ready money will away. — Coins in hand disappear quickly without deliberate saving or spending discipline.