A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

The terser form of this saying—fools build and wise men buy—can be applied to property other than houses (see quot. 1997). 1670 ...

Mourning xv. ‘The deceased was of—er—a forceful personality. Not over-sensitive, either, from all accounts.’ ‘Ah, I see. Fools r ...

1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. vi. I1V They saie as ofte, god sendeth fortune to fooles. 1563 B. GOOGE Eclogues E5 But ...

Observation by two people is better than by one alone. TWO heads are better than one expresses a similar idea. L. plus vident oc ...

fresh see don’t THROW out your dirty water until you get in fresh. Friday see Monday’s CHILD is fair of face. A FRIEND in need i ...

In reality they were prisoners of the past and (in the apt if trite Japanese phrase) ‘frogs in a well’. [footnote] I no naka no ...

Master’s Questions xxi I would listen..to this question..whenever..I am eagerly reaching out my hands to grasp what may satisfy ...

always makes such an occasion rather trying, and there is a good deal of truth in the saying that one funeral brings others. 195 ...

G gain see (noun) one man’s LOSS is another man’s gain; there’s no great LOSS without some gain; NO pain, no gain; (verb) what y ...

gather see he who PLANTS thorns should not expect to gather roses; a ROLLING stone gathers no moss. gathered see where the CARCA ...

xiv. The modern fashion [of research] comes, I suppose, from a literal acceptance of the ridiculous dictum that genius is an inf ...

GIVE and take is fair play 1778 F. BURNEY Evelina I. xxv. This here may be a French fashion.. but Give and Take is fair in all n ...

planned to incriminate anyone else. 1978 R. L. HILL Evil that Men Do vi. Giving the devil his due will always jostle the angels. ...

stone-throwing young men. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. hypocrisy; self-preservation; slander All that ...

GO further and fare worse 1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. iv. G3V You rose on your right syde here ryght. And might hau ...

KNIGHT Master’s Questions xiii. Nowhere does the devil build his little chapels more cunningly than close under the shadow of th ...

‘God is high in the sky and the tsar is far away.’ independence; power; rulers and ruled GOD made the country, and man made the ...

GOD sends meat, but the Devil sends cooks 1542 A. BORDE Dietary of Health xi. It is a common prouerbe, God may sende a man good ...

such naive faith in the Deity. 1996 American Spectator Mar. 56 But as Laurence Sterne was wont to remind us, the Lord tempers th ...

‘It’s seeing the gardens I—we—would have been going for,’ insisted Sloan, ‘Not the luxury.’ ‘Quite right,’ said Leeyes, adding o ...