​​PROVERB A WATCHED POT NEVER BOILLS — it means that tim | Pew Pew

​​PROVERB



A WATCHED POT NEVER BOILLS — it means that time passes very slowly when one is waiting for something to happen if that is the only thing one is thinking about



I kept waiting for hours near my phone but there was no news from my daughter from the war zone yet because a watched pot never boils.


Origin

This phrase is not literal in meaning since scientifically a pot kept to boil will have absolutely no effect if one is watching it. It is a poetic way of saying that time seems to slow down when one is waiting for something to happen desperately. Benjamin Franklin wrote this proverb under his pseudonym Poor Richard in his annual almanac during the years 1732 to 1758. He was trying to showcase a pro-industry mind set with phrases such as this where he provided improvement ideas to people. The first literary use of this phrase is also by Benjamin Franklin in a report published in 1785 which he was directed to write on the orders of the king while he was serving as the United States envoy in the French territories.