every dog has his day
Preserved but no longer current.
You may crow over me to-day, but my turn will come by and by. In Latin Hodie mihi, eras tibi, "To-day to me, tomorrow to thee." "Nunc mihi^ nunc tibi, bemgna" (fortuna), fortune visits every man once; she favours me now, but she will favour you in your turn.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Examples
Tatoeba sentence #36595 (CC BY 2.0 FR, tatoeba.org, retrieved 2026-07-31)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “every dog has his day” mean?
You may crow over me to-day, but my turn will come by and by. In Latin Hodie mihi, eras tibi, "To-day to me, tomorrow to thee." "Nunc mihi^ nunc tibi, bemgna" (fortuna), fortune visits every man once; she favours me now, but she will favour you in your turn.
Is “every dog has his day” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.