A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Meaning

It’s better to have a lesser but certain advantage than the possibility of a greater one that may come to nothing.

Examples

The questions in the final round looked hard so we opted out of the big prize and took the smaller $2,000 second prize. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush you know.

Where did it originate?

The United Kingdom.

Where is it used?

One of the most widely used proverbs throughout the English-speaking world.

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How the idiom originated

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About the Author

Gary Martin

Writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush