A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

shame see (noun) FOOL me once, shame on you; (verb) TELL the truth and shame the
Devil.

shared see a TROUBLE shared is a trouble halved.

The SHARPER the storm, the sooner it’s over

Cf. SENECA Natural Questions VII. ix. procellae, quanto plus habent virium, tanto minus
temporis, the harder storms are, the shorter they last.

1872 F. KILVERT Diary 9 June (1977) II. 207 Mrs. Vaughan will have a good

family soon. Her children come fast. But the harder the storm the sooner ‘tis over. 1913

Folk-Lore XXIV. 76 The sharper the storm, the sooner it’s over. 2002 Washington Post

11 Feb. C13 (One Big Happy comic strip)’.. She’ll be very, very angry!’ ‘I know, but the

sharper the storm, the sooner it’s over.’ ‘I’m about to be killed, and you’re giving me

weather reports?!’ weather lore

sheep see BETTER to live one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep; a
BLEATING sheep loses a bite; one might as well be HANGED for a sheep as a lamb.

shepherd see RED sky at night shepherd’s delight.

You cannot SHIFT an old tree without it dying

c 1518 A. BARCLAY tr. Mancinus’ Mirror of Good Manners G4V An old tre

transposed shall fynde smal auauntage. 1670 J. RAY English Proverbs 22 Remove an old

tree, and it will wither to death. 1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 284 Remove an old

Tree, and it will wither. Spoken by a Man who is loth to leave a Place in his advanc’d

years, in which he has long lived. 1831 W. M. PRAED Political & Occasional Poems

(1888) 166 I’m near three-score; you ought to know You can’t transplant so old a tree.

1906 R. KIPLING Puck of Pook’s Hill 259 ‘You’ve cleaved to your own parts pretty

middlin’ close, Ralph.’ ‘Can’t shift an old tree ‘thout it dyin’.’ habit; old age

shine see happy is the BRIDE that the sunshines on; MAKE hay while the sun shines.

shining see the SUN loses nothing by shining into a puddle.