☕ Read the tea leaves
Concrete Meaning
To predict future events or guess what is going to happen by analyzing small, subtle signs and hints.
💬 Context & Examples
Used in business, economics, or politics when analysts try to forecast trends based on minimal, incomplete, or ambiguous data.
- "If you read the tea leaves, it—™s pretty clear that the CEO is preparing to sell the company."
- "Economists are trying to read the tea leaves of the latest jobs report to predict what the central bank will do next."
🧠Pattern Challenge
Test Yourself
How does a fortune teller physically "read tea leaves"?
Show Answer
After a person drinks a cup of loose-leaf tea, the fortune teller looks at the random, messy shapes the leftover wet leaves make at the bottom of the cup, assigning deep meaning to random patterns.