To sell the skin before you have caught the bear. To count of
your chickens before they are hatched. In the South Sea mania (1720),
dealing in bear-skins was a great stock-jobbing item, and thousands
of skins were sold as mere time bargains. Shakespeare alludes to a
The man that once did sell the lion's skin
While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him.
Henry V., iv. 3.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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