A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

pie see the DEVIL makes his Christmas pies of lawyers’ tongues and clerks’ fingers.

pie-crust see PROMISES, like pie-crust, are made to be broken.

pig see DOGS look up to you, cats look down on you, pigs is equal; what can you EXPECT
from a pig but a grunt?

pillow see a clean CONSCIENCE is a good pillow.

See a PIN and pick it up, all the day you’ll have good luck; see a pin and let it lie, bad
luck you’ll have all the day

Similarly extolling the virtues of thrift in small matters is 1668 S. PEPYS Diary 2 Jan.
(1976) IX. 7 The King answered to it with great indifferency. Sir W. Coventry answered: ‘I see
your Majesty doth not remember the old English proverb, ‘He that will not stoop for a pin will
never be worth a pound’.

1843 J. O. HALLIWELL Nursery Rhymes 120 See a pin and let it lay, Bad luck

you’ll have all the day! 1883 C. S. BURNE Shropshire Folklore xxi. Pins are held..

unlucky.. in the North of England.. but side by side with this we have the thrifty maxim—

See a pin and let it lie, You’ll want a pin another day; See a pin and pick it up, All the day

you’ll have good luck. 1935 A. CHRISTIE Tape-Measure Murder in Miss Marple’s Final

Cases (1979) ‘There’s a pin in your tunic.’.. He said, ‘They do say, “See a pin and pick it

up, all the day you’ll have good luck.”’ 1966 D. FRANCIS Flying Finish ix. In the little

hall hung more time-worn poker work. ‘See a pin and pick it up, all the day you’ll have

good luck. See a pin and let it lie, you will want before you die.’ luck; thrift

pin see also NEEDLES and pins,.. when a man marries, his trouble begins; it’s a SIN to
steal a pin.

pint see you cannot get a QUART into a pint pot. piper see he who PAYS the piper calls
the tune.

pitch see he that TOUCHES pitch shall be defiled.