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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.


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]


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

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

"Look before you leap," is usually said after we have leaped.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 64, February, 1863 by Various

I give you the same recipe without charge: Look before you leap, especially if you're going to leap into a canoe.

From The Last of the Chiefs A Story of the Great Sioux War by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

Look before you leap, sir, and be not so wilful as to bury yourself alive.

From The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

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

Then, my boy, always remember to look before you leap, and not to let go one rope before you have a firm gripe of another.

From Salt Water The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D'Arcy the Midshipman by C. J. de Lacey

You are warned, "look before you leap", 'Cause this leap should not be last lap.

From Truth and the Myth : Couplets quips by A. R. Narayanan

Reader, never leap in dark places, and look before you leap.

From Canada and the Canadians, Vol. 2 by Richard Henry Bonnycastle

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