"be careful what you wish for" meaning in All languages combined

See be careful what you wish for on Wiktionary

Phrase [English]

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-be careful what you wish for.wav [US]
Head templates: {{en-head|phr}} be careful what you wish for
  1. The desired outcome may not be as desirable once it has been attained. Related terms: double-edged sword, monkey's paw Translations (Translations): تَجْرِي الرِّيَاحُ بِمَا لَا تَشْتَهِي السُّفُنُ (tajrī r-riyāḥu bimā lā taštahī s-sufunu) (Arabic), внимавай какво си пожелаваш (vnimavaj kakvo si poželavaš) (Bulgarian), varo mitä toivot, se voi toteutua (Finnish), uważaj, czego pragniesz (Polish), uważaj na marzenia (Polish), cuidado com o que você deseja (Portuguese), cuidado com o que desejas (Portuguese), ai grijă ce-ți dorești (Romanian), будь осторожна с желаниями (budʹ ostorožna s želanijami) (Russian), ¿no querías caldo? ¡pues toma dos tazas! (Spanish), to çı waşto ey diqet kı (Zazaki)

Alternative forms

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          "lang": "Arabic",
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          "code": "bg",
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          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "lang_code": "ro",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "ai grijă ce-ți dorești"
        },
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          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "budʹ ostorožna s želanijami",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "будь осторожна с желаниями"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "¿no querías caldo? ¡pues toma dos tazas!"
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          "lang_code": "zza",
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      "word": "double-edged sword"
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        "The desired outcome may not be as desirable once it has been attained."
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      "code": "bg",
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      "word": "внимавай какво си пожелаваш"
    },
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      "code": "fi",
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      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "Translations",
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      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "uważaj na marzenia"
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      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "cuidado com o que você deseja"
    },
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      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "cuidado com o que desejas"
    },
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      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "lang_code": "ro",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ai grijă ce-ți dorești"
    },
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      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "budʹ ostorožna s želanijami",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "будь осторожна с желаниями"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "¿no querías caldo? ¡pues toma dos tazas!"
    },
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      "code": "zza",
      "lang": "Zazaki",
      "lang_code": "zza",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "to çı waşto ey diqet kı"
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  "word": "be careful what you wish for"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.