A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

(Marcin) #1

apple see also the ROTTEN apple injures its neighbours; SMALL choice in rotten apples;
STOLEN fruit is sweet.


An APPLE-PIE without some cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze

1929 C. BROOKS Seven Hells v. 63 Let me advise you to take a bit of cheese with it.
They have a good proverb, these folks: ‘Apple pie without the cheese, is like the kiss
without a squeeze.’ 1989 Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) 2 July 4M There was an old
English rhyme popular about 1750 that went: An apple-pie without some cheese Is like a
kiss without a squeeze. 2002 Spectator 21 Sept. 61 ‘Apple cake without cheese,’ they
used to say in Yorkshire, ‘is like a kiss without a squeeze.’ food and drink

APRIL showers bring forth May flowers

c 1560 in T. Wright Songs & Ballads (1860) 213 Aprell sylver showers so sweet Can
make May flowers to sprynge. 1670 J. RAY English Proverbs 41 April showers bring
forth May flowers. 1846 M. A. DENHAM Proverbs relating to Seasons, &c. 36 March
winds and April showers bring forth May flowers. 1921 Sphere 14 May 152 If there was
anybody left to believe in the saying that ‘April showers bring forth May flowers’ their
simple faith must have been rudely shattered by May’s behaviour this year. 2001
Washington Post 1 July F1 If April showers bring May flowers, what do June brides
bring? weather lore

architect see EVERY man is the architect of his own fortune.

arm see KINGS have long arms; STRETCH your arm no further than your sleeve will
reach; YORKSHIRE born and Yorkshire bred, strong in the arm and weak in the head.


An ARMY marches on its stomach

The proverb has been attributed to both Napoleon and Frederick the Great; this figurative
use of (on one’s) stomach is unusual in English.


1904 Windsor Magazine Jan. 268 ‘An army marches on its stomach.’ ‘C’est la soupe
qui fait le soldat.’ These Napoleonic aphorisms.. have been increasingly appreciated by
our War Office. 1977 J. B. HILTON Dead-Nettie x. ‘They say an army marches on its
stomach,’ Gilbert Slack began to say. ‘You mean that Frank was a cook?’ 1992 W.
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