strike while the iron is hot
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
To immediately take advantage of a positive opportunity, before the situation changes.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Ngay lập tức tận dụng cơ hội thuận lợi trước khi tình hình thay đổi
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Maybe he would even mount a punitive expedition tonight, striking while the iron was hot, and all that.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review.
Common questions
What does “strike while the iron is hot” mean?
To immediately take advantage of a positive opportunity, before the situation changes.
Is “strike while the iron is hot” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.