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you never can tell

you never can tell idiom

Also, you never know. Perhaps, possibly, one can't be certain, as in You never can tell, it might turn into a beautiful day, or You may yet win the lottery—you never know. The first term uses tell in the sense of “discern,” a usage dating from the late 1300s; the variant dates from the mid-1800s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.