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tempt fate
Idioms and Phrases
Also, tempt the fates . Take a severe risk, as in It's tempting fate to start up that mountain so late in the day , or Patrice thought driving that old car was tempting the fates; it was sure to break down . This expression uses tempt in the sense of “test in a way that involves risk or danger.†Earlier idioms with a similar meaning were tempt God , dating from the 1300s, and tempt fortune , first recorded in 1603, with fate appearing about 1700.Example Sentences
I don't want to tempt fate by saying we are going to win it, and I also think it depends a lot on how we do in the next couple of weeks.
With California's population near 40 million, the need for housing has prompted builders to tempt fate by erecting homes in fire-prone areas.
“We didn’t want to tempt fate,†Dickson said, laughing as he recalled the March 7 incident.
If so, you’ll relate with the denizens of the fictional, funky Seattle record store The Cuckoo’s Nest, who tempt fate one drunken night by simultaneously playing four, old 12-inch singles, conjuring the fabled “Schrader’s Chord.â€
He’s going to tempt fate and make the unconventional decisions, and we should be used to that.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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