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Glite Dictionary
to go off at half-cock

to go off at half-cock

1 9.2
To act too quickly without thinking first
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : actuar precipitadamente
  • If you decide to go off at half-cock, you might regret your impulsive decision later.

Examples

  • Never go off at half-cock.

    The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

  • She tends to go off at half-cock when planning her vacations, which often leads to chaos.

  • Don't go off at half-cock; take some time to think through your choices carefully.

Synonyms

to jump the gun
vsto go off at half-cock
  • Informal
29 5.3

To act before the right time, often too soon

focuses on acting hastily without enough preparation rather than only timing
to shoot from the hip
vsto go off at half-cock
  • Informal
6 8.1

To speak or act quickly without thinking carefully

is more about acting before the proper time rather than just quickness
to go off half-cocked
vsto go off at half-cock
  • Informal
4 8.1

To act or speak without thinking first and cause problems

is the same meaning but uses a different common phrasing

Antonyms

to prepare
∞ 1.0

Make something ready for use or an event

to think it through
  • Informal
105 3.2

To look at all the details and what may happen before you decide

How Hasty

to go off at half-cock
  • Informal
1 9.2
to jump the gun
  • Informal
29 5.3
to rush in
36 3.1
to prepare for
487 2.8

Surface Forms

go off at half-cock infinitive
going off at half-cock present participle
goes off at half-cock third person singular
went off at half-cock past
gone off at half-cock past participle

Morphology

go + off + at + half-cock

The sense 'to act too hastily' cannot be reliably derived from the literal parts: 'go off' can mean 'start' or 'explode', but 'half-cock' is an archaic, technical reference to a gun hammer position that most B1 learners will not know. Because the meaning depends on this idiomatic historical image rather than straightforward compositional logic, a learner who knows the individual words is unlikely to predict the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The idiom go off at half-cock comes from old guns. If the gun's hammer was only on half-cock, it could fire too soon or fail, so the phrase came to mean 'to act too hastily'.