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“A watched pot never boils”: meaning and examples

A watched pot never boils

What it means

The phrase A watched pot never boils is a proverb meaning that if you anxiously wait for something to happen, it will seem to take longer.

Tone Advisory

Examples

  • Don’t keep checking the mail every hour; remember, a watched pot never boils!
  • He was so eager for the project to succeed that he forgot the lesson of the watched pot never boiling.
  • While waiting for her test results, she reminded herself that a watched pot never boils.

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