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To waste time or emotion lamenting an unfortunate event that has already occurred and cannot be reversed.
"The investment dropped ten percent, but there is no use crying over spilled milk."
"We lost the opening match, but instead of crying over spilled milk, we focused on the next game."
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Draws vivid metaphors from food, culinary preparation, and agricultural harvests ('milk').
Recorded in James Howell's 1659 English Proverbs collection as "No weeping for shed milk", reminding that once milk spills onto the earth, it can never be recollected.
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