first catch your hare

English

Etymology

Supposedly from an error in The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, where "catch" should have read "case" (i.e. remove the skin); however, this is apocryphal.

Proverb

first catch your hare

  1. Make sure you have a thing before you decide what to do with it.
    • 1866, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 9, in Wives and Daughters, London: Smith, Elder & Co.:
      Have you never thought of marrying again? […] Mr. Gibson had thought of this advice several times since it was given; but it was a case of "first catch your hare." Where was the "sensible and agreeable woman of thirty or so?"
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