Don’t Let Your Mouth Write a Check Your Tail Can’t Cash
In Southern and Appalachian speech, "Don’t Let Your Mouth Write a Check Your Tail Can’t Cash" is a colorful warning meaning don’t boast, threaten, or promise more than you can actually deliver. It’s a folksy version of "don’t write checks you can’t cover," mixing financial imagery with Southern plain talk.
#SouthernSayings #Appalachia #PeopleandRelationships #Southern #Proverbs
I've heard variants of 'don’t let your mouth write a check your tail can’t cash' all my life. I've heard variants of 'don’t let your mouth write a check your tail can’t cash' all my life. Pronunciation
Meaning & Usage
- To warn someone not to talk bigger than they can act (proverb/admonition)
I’m gonna knock him out first punch.Careful - don’t let your mouth write a check your tail can’t cash.- To caution humility and realism (proverb/admonition)
I told everyone I’d finish that job today.Don’t let your mouth write a check your tail can’t cash - start smaller.Origin and Etymology
A mid-20th-century Southern proverb. Earliest print examples appear in Texas and Alabama newspapers and oral tradition in the 1950s-60s. Built on the older banking proverb "Don’t write checks you can’t cover" but given a Southern spin with "mouth" and "tail."
Usage Notes
Still common in the South and Appalachia, especially in sports, military, and blue-collar settings. Outsiders recognize it from movies and stand-up comedy, but the phrasing remains most natural in Southern mouths.
Say It Like a Southerner
Said plain: "don’t let your mouth write a check your tail can’t cash." Sometimes "don’t let your alligator mouth write a check your hummingbird tail can’t cash."