"the proof of the pudding is in the eating" meaning in English

See the proof of the pudding is in the eating in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: This proverb dates back at least to the 14th century as "Jt is ywrite that euery thing Hymself sheweth in the tastyng", and William Camden stated it in 1605 in Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine as "All the proofe of a pudding, is in the eating", per Rogers' Dictionary of Cliche and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. A 1682 translation of Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux Le Lutrin (written between 1672 and 1674) renders it "The proof of th' pudding's seen i' the eating." The current phrasing is generally attributed to the 1701 translation by Peter Anthony Motteux of a proverb Miguel de Cervantes used in Don Quixote (1615), al freír de los huevos lo verá (“you will see it when you fry the eggs”). The shorter form the proof is in the pudding, which is found in an 1867 issue of the British Farmer's Magazine, and came into common use in the United States in the 1950s, is becoming increasingly common, despite missing the point of the original meaning. Etymology templates: {{m|es|al freír de los huevos lo verá||you will see it when you fry the eggs}} al freír de los huevos lo verá (“you will see it when you fry the eggs”), {{m|en|the proof is in the pudding}} the proof is in the pudding Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} the proof of the pudding is in the eating
  1. One can only claim that something is a success after it has been tried out or used. Wikipedia link: Don Quixote, Michael Quinion, Miguel de Cervantes, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, Peter Anthony Motteux, William Camden Synonyms: the proof is in the eating [rare], the proof is in the pudding, proof in the pudding Translations (the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for): المَيَّه تكَدِّب الغَطَّاس [Egyptian-Arabic] (Arabic), 百聞不如一見 (Chinese Mandarin), 百闻不如一见 (bǎi wén bùrú yī jiàn) (Chinese Mandarin), de praktijk zal het leren (Dutch), käytäntö sen vasta osoittaa (Finnish), il faut juger sur pièces (French), la qualité se révèle à l’usage (French), Probieren geht über Studieren (German), die Praxis wird es zeigen (German), a puding próbája az evés (Hungarian), 論より証拠 (Japanese), 백문이 불여일견 (baengmuni buryeoilgyeon) (Korean), la preuve du podîn ch'est dé l'gouôter (Norman), nie przekonasz się, dopóki nie spróbujesz (Polish), ao frigir dos ovos (Portuguese), не попробуешь, не узнаешь (ne poprobuješʹ, ne uznaješʹ) (Russian), ne znaš dok ne probaš [idiomatic] (Serbo-Croatian), el algodón no engaña (Spanish), en la cancha se ven los pingos (Spanish), no sabes la calidad de algo hasta que lo has experimentado. (Spanish), al freír de los huevos lo verá (Spanish), puddingen bevisas i ätandet (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-the_proof_of_the_pudding_is_in_the_eating-en-proverb-bqZl808C Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs, Undetermined quotations with omitted translation

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for the proof of the pudding is in the eating meaning in English (7.6kB)

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          "code": "arz",
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          "tags": [
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          "code": "cmn",
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          "word": "百闻不如一见"
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          "code": "nl",
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          "word": "de praktijk zal het leren"
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          "code": "fi",
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          "word": "käytäntö sen vasta osoittaa"
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          "word": "il faut juger sur pièces"
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          "word": "Probieren geht über Studieren"
        },
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          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
          "word": "die Praxis wird es zeigen"
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          "word": "a puding próbája az evés"
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          "word": "el algodón no engaña"
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        "Don Quixote",
        "Michael Quinion",
        "Miguel de Cervantes",
        "Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux",
        "Peter Anthony Motteux",
        "William Camden"
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    }
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  "word": "the proof of the pudding is in the eating"
}
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          "text": "It begs the question: will this be a costly mistake? I think not, but the proof of the pudding is in a RAIL train test - so armed with stopwatch, measuring tape and notepad, it was time to head north to track one down and test it!",
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      "word": "the proof is in the eating"
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      "word": "the proof is in the pudding"
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    {
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    {
      "code": "arz",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "tags": [
        "Egyptian-Arabic"
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      "word": "المَيَّه تكَدِّب الغَطَّاس"
    },
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      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "百聞不如一見"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "bǎi wén bùrú yī jiàn",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "百闻不如一见"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "de praktijk zal het leren"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "käytäntö sen vasta osoittaa"
    },
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      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "il faut juger sur pièces"
    },
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      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "la qualité se révèle à l’usage"
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      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "Probieren geht über Studieren"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "die Praxis wird es zeigen"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "a puding próbája az evés"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "論より証拠"
    },
    {
      "code": "ko",
      "lang": "Korean",
      "roman": "baengmuni buryeoilgyeon",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "백문이 불여일견"
    },
    {
      "code": "nrf",
      "lang": "Norman",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "la preuve du podîn ch'est dé l'gouôter"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "nie przekonasz się, dopóki nie spróbujesz"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "ao frigir dos ovos"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "ne poprobuješʹ, ne uznaješʹ",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "не попробуешь, не узнаешь"
    },
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      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "word": "ne znaš dok ne probaš"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "el algodón no engaña"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "en la cancha se ven los pingos"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "no sabes la calidad de algo hasta que lo has experimentado."
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "al freír de los huevos lo verá"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for",
      "word": "puddingen bevisas i ätandet"
    }
  ],
  "word": "the proof of the pudding is in the eating"
}

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.