you snooze, you lose
Meaning: If you are slow to act, someone else will take the chance.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The last two tickets went in a minute: you snooze, you lose.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A rhyming American saying from the late 20th century; "snooze" for a short sleep is 19th-century slang.
Equivalents in other languages
- Italian: Chi dorme non piglia pesci — literally: He who sleeps doesn't catch fish
More idioms — Daily Life
- go off without a hitch — To happen smoothly, with no problems.
- lose one's shirt — To lose all one's money.
- every little bit helps — Even a small contribution is worth having.
- get the wrong end of the stick — To misunderstand something completely.
- on tenterhooks — In anxious suspense.
- on the ropes — Close to defeat or collapse.
More English idioms
- smell a rat — To sense that something dishonest is going on.
- a hard nut to crack — A difficult problem, or a person who is hard to deal with.
- have a finger in every pie — To be involved in many different things at once.
- have a bee in one's bonnet — To be obsessed with one idea.
- put down roots — To settle somewhere permanently.
- start off on the wrong foot — To begin something badly.