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• Look before you leap
  Look before you leap

  We should know what we are getting into before we commit ourselves.
• look before you leap
  look before you leap

  Think of the consequences before you act, as in You'd better check out all the costs before you buy a cellular phone—look before you leap. This expression alludes to Aesop's fable about the fox who is unable to climb out of a well and persuades a goat to jump in. The fox then climbs on the goat's horns to get out, while the goat remains trapped. [c. 1350]

Look before you leap

Cultural  

1. We should know what we are getting into before we commit ourselves.

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look before you leap Idioms  

1. Think of the consequences before you act, as in You'd better check out all the costs before you buy a cellular phone—look before you leap. This expression alludes to Aesop's fable about the fox who is unable to climb out of a well and persuades a goat to jump in. The fox then climbs on the goat's horns to get out, while the goat remains trapped. [c. 1350]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Look before you leap look before you leap

Look before you leap, and then look again in the mirror, media people.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2019

Yellow doesn't mean cowardice just because it warns, "Look before you leap."

From Time Magazine Archive

He impressed upon the young delegates the good old adage of "Look before you leap," and cautioned them against the delusive hope that their condition would be improved by change of measures.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 339, January, 1844 by Various

Examples of this are: "Look before you leap."

From Stories That Words Tell Us by O'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)

So I say again, Look before you leap.

From From Squire to Squatter A Tale of the Old Land and the New by Stables, Gordon

However, you’ll need to look before you leap when buying raw land or a developed vacant building lot.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2021

The lesson: look before you leap after the headlines.

From Time Magazine Archive

We will do our best; but next time, look before you leap, and save your bones.

From Jack and Jill by Alcott, Louisa May

In old days, before wire was known, this used to be the best grass country in the V.W.H., but nowadays you must "look before you leap."

From A Cotswold Village by Gibbs, J. Arthur

Now, Bella," said Mr. Boffin, "look before you leap.

From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 03 — Fiction by Mee, Arthur