cry over spilt milk - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
cry over spilt milk (third-person singular simple present cries over spilt milk, present participle crying over spilt milk, simple past and past participle cried over spilt milk)
- To worry about unfortunate events which have already happened and which cannot be changed.
1738, Jonathan Swift, A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation:
'Tis a Folly to cry for spilt Milk.
1833, Mr. Warburton, The Sportsman's Cabinet, and Town and Country Magazine, volumes 1-2, page 376:
The Willington Mare, when she started so fast, Ah! we little thought then that the race was her last: Accurst be the stake that was stained with her blood! But, why cry for spilt milk?—May the next be as good.
2016, Barbara Hannay, The Grazier's Wife[1], Penguin Group Australia, →ISBN:
Don't you bloody dare cry over spilt milk. You only have yourself to blame.
- Usually found as a negative imperative: don't cry over spilt milk or there's no point crying over spilt milk.
to worry about unfortunate events which have already happened
- Gregory Y. Titelman, Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, 1996, →ISBN, p. 63.