<P> There's many a slip' twixt the cup and the lip is a very old proverb, similar in meaning to "don't count your chickens before they hatch". It implies that even when a good outcome or conclusion seems certain, things can still go wrong . </P> <P> The English proverb is almost identical with a Greek hexameter verse, Πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου (Much there is between the cup and the tip of the lip). This verse was proverbial at the time of Aulus Gellius (2nd century A.D.), who mentions it in his comment on the Latin phrase inter os atque offam (between the mouth and the morsel) used by Marcus Cato . The Greek verse is attributed to Palladas in The Greek Anthology (X, 32), but that is manifestly erroneous, since Palladas lived two centuries after Aulus Gellius . The Loeb Classical Library edition of the Anthology says that the verse is "a very ancient proverb, by some attributed to Homer". There is a reference to the many things that can intervene between cup and lip already in an iambic verse by Lycophron (3rd century B.C.) quoted by Erasmus . </P>

There is many a slip between the cup and the lip meaning in english