не ровен час

• НЕ РОВЕН ЧАС old-fash, coll

[sent; Invar; often used as sent adv; fixed WO]

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1. (in refer, to an action, event etc specified or implied by the context) used to express fear that sth. unpleasant or dangerous may happen:

- who knows;

- you never know;

- one never knows.

     ♦ "Пожалуйте только расписочку". - "Да на что ж вам расписка?" - "Всё, знаете, лучше расписочку. Не ровён час, все может случиться" (Гоголь 3). "Please let me have a receipt." "What do you want a receipt for?" "It's always better to have a receipt. Who knows, anything might happen" (3a).

     ♦ ...Не ровён час - какой-нибудь офицер Петровского полка, находясь в столице, мог заглянуть на один из наших вечеров и, увидев меня на эстраде, сделать соответствующие "организационные" выводы, угрожавшие мне по меньшей мере годичным заключением в дисциплинарном батальоне (Лившиц 1). One never knows - some officer from the Petrovsky regiment who happened to be in the capital might drop in on one of our meetings; he would see me on the rostrum, make the appropriate "disciplinary" inferences and threaten me with at least a year's detention in the penal battalion (1a).

2. used to indicate that some unspecified dangerous, unpleasant etc thing may happen (often used as a conclusion after a warning):

- you never know what might happen;

- all kinds of things could happen;

- something might (could) go wrong.

     ♦ Деньги надо хранить в банке: не ровён час. You should keep your money in the bank-you never know what might happen.