proverb🎓 English idiom

don't put all your eggs in one basket

don't risk everything on one option

What it means

This proverb warns against concentrating all your resources, hopes, or effort in a single place, because if it fails you lose everything. It encourages spreading risk across several options instead.

Examples

  • Apply to a few universities; don't put all your eggs in one basket.
  • She invested in several companies so as not to put all her eggs in one basket.
  • Relying on one big client is risky, like putting all your eggs in one basket.
  • Keep some backup plans, because you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket.

Where it comes from

The proverb appears in print in the early 17th century, notably in Cervantes' Don Quixote, drawing on the practical wisdom that dropping one basket of eggs could break the whole lot.

Related idioms

#bite off more than you can chew#throw caution to the wind#a long shot#there's no such thing as a free lunch

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