count the cost

idiom

: to feel the bad effects of a mistake, accident, etc.
He was careless and now he's counting the cost.

Examples of count the cost in a Sentence

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But a technologically powerful country needn’t count the cost; the United States certainly didn’t. IEEE Spectrum, 17 May 2023 Businesses count the cost Although Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, its exit from the single market and customs union was finalized only on December 24, 2020, when the two sides finally agreed a free trade deal. Hanna Ziady, CNN, 24 Dec. 2022

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Cite this Entry

“Count the cost.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/count%20the%20cost. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

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