A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1974 E. STONE Donald writes no More xv. No one can say why Donald Goines and Shirley Sailor were murdered. The ghetto philosophy ...

traffic are too heavily loaded when they carry with them confiscatory legislation, local option, ruinous harshness to individual ...

c 1350 Douce MS 52 no. 122 Of a gode begynnyng comyth a gode endyng. 1710 S. PALMER Proverbs 1 A good Beginning makes a good End ...

was again reasserted.. in the often repeated verse which followed, that the good die young. 1987 L. BARNES Trouble of Fools v. ‘ ...

The only GOOD Indian is a dead Indian Originally with reference to North American Indians; now also used derogatively of members ...

daughter’s fight with..’A good Jack makes a good Jill.’ men and women GOOD men are scarce 1609 D. TUVILL Essays Moral & Theo ...

a 1430 J. LYDGATE Pilgrimage of Man (EETS) 1. 20415 And at tavernys (withoute wene [doubt]) Thys tooknys [signs] nor thys bowys ...

saying when the FURZE is in bloom, my love’s in tune. 1846 M. A. DENHAM Proverbs relating to Seasons, &c. 12 When whins [gor ...

c 1350 Douce MS 52 no. 20 While the grasse growes, the goode hors sterues. a 1500 in Wright & Halliwell Reliquiæ Antiquæ (18 ...

inception more than three centuries ago. brevity and long-windedness GREAT minds think alike Used ironically. Both verb and noun ...

1773 R. GRAVES Spiritual Quixote II. VII. xi. It was a maxim with Mr. Whitfield, ‘The greater the Sinner, the greater the Saint. ...

A proverb with many variations on the theme of the unhealthiness of a mild winter. 1635 J. SWAN Speculum Mundi v. They also say, ...

grind see the MILL cannot grind with the water that is past; the MILLS of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small. grip ...

c 1390 CHAUCER Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue 1. 688 For Catoun [Dionysius Cato] seith that he that gilty is Demeth alle thyng be spo ...

H habit see OLD habits die hard. What you’ve never HAD you never miss 1912 J. WEBSTER’ Daddy-Long-Legs (1913) 232 You mustn’t ge ...

A proverb advising economy or restraint. Cf. HESIOD Works & Days 40 half is more than the whole. 1550 H. LATIMER Sermon befo ...

half see also BELIEVE nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see; two BOYS are half a boy, and three boys are no bo ...

Post 7 Apr. H7 It’s a waste to use $480 worth of Office suite for such simple work. But it’s not a surprise either. To paraphras ...

other; SENECA Apocolocyntosis ix. manus manum lavat, hand washes hand. 1573 J. SANFORDE Garden of Pleasure 110 V One hand washet ...

Lord Justice Clerk Braxfield [Robert MacQueen, Lord Braxfield (1722–99), Scottish judge], who invariably acted upon its teaching ...