"better an egg today than a hen tomorrow" meaning in English

See better an egg today than a hen tomorrow in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora, from Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais. Etymology templates: {{clq|en|la|ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora}} Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} better an egg today than a hen tomorrow
  1. It is better to have a sure thing now than a possibility of more later. Wikipedia link: Rabelais Synonyms: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, take the cash and let the credit go Related terms: sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage
    Sense id: en-better_an_egg_today_than_a_hen_tomorrow-en-proverb-EIcTGCPN Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs

Download JSON data for better an egg today than a hen tomorrow meaning in English (1.3kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora"
      },
      "expansion": "Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora",
      "name": "clq"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora, from Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "better an egg today than a hen tomorrow",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "It is better to have a sure thing now than a possibility of more later."
      ],
      "id": "en-better_an_egg_today_than_a_hen_tomorrow-en-proverb-EIcTGCPN",
      "links": [
        [
          "sure",
          "sure"
        ],
        [
          "possibility",
          "possibility"
        ],
        [
          "more",
          "more"
        ],
        [
          "later",
          "later"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
        },
        {
          "word": "take the cash and let the credit go"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Rabelais"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "better an egg today than a hen tomorrow"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora"
      },
      "expansion": "Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora",
      "name": "clq"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora, from Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "better an egg today than a hen tomorrow",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms calqued from Latin",
        "English terms derived from Latin"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "It is better to have a sure thing now than a possibility of more later."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sure",
          "sure"
        ],
        [
          "possibility",
          "possibility"
        ],
        [
          "more",
          "more"
        ],
        [
          "later",
          "later"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
        },
        {
          "word": "take the cash and let the credit go"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Rabelais"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "better an egg today than a hen tomorrow"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (4d5d0bb and edd475d). 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.