A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

fall see (noun) hasty CLIMBERS have sudden falls; PRIDE goes before a fall; (verb) the APPLE never falls far from the tree; BETW ...

together. 1980 R. HILL Spy’s Wife xxi. The family that spies together, sties together. Old Cockney Russian proverb. 1996 Washing ...

The FAT man knoweth not what the lean thinketh 1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 605 The fatt man knoweth not, what the le ...

remember your promise to confess; and indeed, to confess is, in this case, in some slight sort to redress. 1855 H. G. BOHN Handb ...

February is traditionally a month of heavy rain (black) or snow (white), but see quot. 1978. 1557 T. TUSSER Husbandry D1 Feuerel ...

direct all its energy into fighting the fever. health feed see the CARIBOU feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the cari ...

fiction see FACT is stranger than fiction; TRUTH is stranger than fiction. fiddle see there’s many a GOOD tune played on an old ...

The phrase to live to fight another day is also used allusively. Cf. MENANDER Sent. 56 (Jaekel) a man who flees will fight again ...

See also the preceding proverb. Cf. PLAUTUS Trinummus 1.63 habeas ut nanctu’s, he may keep that finds. The principle was current ...

Washington Post 27 Jan. C12 (Peanuts comic strip)[Charlie Brown:] ‘Yes, ma’am, he’s a very smart dog. Thank you for saying so.’ ...

People react in different ways to the same experience. Earlier in other variants; cf. 1623 BACON History of Life and Death (onli ...

c 1390 CHAUCER Wife of Bath’s Prologue 1. 389 Whoso that first to mille comth, first grynt. 1548 H. BRINKELOW Complaint of Roder ...

Diary of Edwardian Lady (1977) 132 By the 1.st of March the crows begin to search, By the 1.st of April they are sitting still, ...

There is always a FIRST time Also, there’s a first time for everything. 1792 A. HAMILTON Papers (1961-) XII. 504 But there is al ...

1581 G. PETTIE tr. S. Guazzo’s Civil Conversation III. 51 If the prouerbe be true,.. that a fishe beginneth first to smell at th ...

another as good behind. 1822 SCOTT Nigel III. x. Ye need not sigh sae deeply. .. There are as gude fish in the sea as ever came ...

dogs, you will get up with fleas; NOTHING should be done in haste but gripping a flea. flesh see what’s BRED in the bone will co ...

(1837) II. i. He answered, smiling, ’Freits (omens) follow those who look to them.’.. Scott never saw him again. 1914 Times Lite ...

1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. ii. F4V But there is no foole to the olde foole, folke saie. 1721 J. KELLY Scottish Pro ...

fool see also CHILDREN and fools tell the truth; FORTUNE favours fools; a man who is his own LAWYER has a fool for his client; M ...