Misfortunes never come singly. (14th century, Citatboken)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Bad things often happen together
Literally: misfortunes come one at a time
Examples
She lost her job and her cat died, proving that misfortunes never come singly
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Misfortunes never come singly. (14th century, Citatboken)” mean?
Bad things often happen together Literally: misfortunes come one at a time
Is “Misfortunes never come singly. (14th century, Citatboken)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.