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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

"Look before you leap," old Commodore Vanderbilt used to say.

From How to Get on in the World A Ladder to Practical Success by Major A.R. Calhoon

"Look before you leap" is an old and trite proverb.

From Favourite Fables in Prose and Verse by Harrison Weir

Neither the chronic doubter nor the prematurely thoughtful need be admonished, "Look before you leap," or "Be sure you're right, then go ahead."

From Why Worry? by George Lincoln Walton

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

“Wait yet a moment, good vuncle,” said the priest in a voice very different from his solemn tones of a moment before; “better look before you leap in the dark.”

From The Literary World Seventh Reader by John Calvin Metcalf

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

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

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

From Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott