A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

has lost £233 million in six months. family

shoemaker see also let the COBBLER stick to his last.

shop see KEEP your shop and your shop will keep you.

shopkeeper see the ENGLISH are a nation of shopkeepers.

shorn see GOD tempers the wind to the shorn lamb; many go out for WOOL and come
home shorn.

A SHORT horse is soon curried

A slight task is soon completed. Curried here means ‘groomed with a currycomb’.

c 1350 Douce MS 52 no. 17 Short hors is son j-curryed. a 1530 R. HILL

Commonplace Book (EETS) 128 A shorte hors is son curried. 1732 T. FULLER

Gnomologia no. 395 A short Horse is soon curried. 1820 SCOTT Abbot I. xi. A short tale

is soon told—and a short horse soon curried. 1939 L. I. WILDER By Shores of Silver

Lake xxx. A short horse is soon curried. This is our tightest squeeze yet,.. but it’s only a

beginning. 1948 F. P. KEYES Dinner at Antoine’s xx. That’s a short horse and soon

curried. Let’s go see this Captain Murphy and put an end to it. efficiency and

inefficiency; work

SHORT reckonings make long friends

A short reckoning is the speedy settlement of an account.

1530 R. WHITFORDE Work for Householders A4 The commune prouerbe is that

ofte rekenynge holdest longe felawship. 1641 D. FERGUSSON Scottish Proverbs (STS)

no. 668 Oft compting makes good friends. 1673 J. DARE Counsellor Manners xciii. Short

reckonings (we say) make long friends. 1842 S. LOVER Handy Andy viii. There must be

no nonsense about the wedding. .. Just marry her off, and take her home. Short reckonings

make long friends. 1918 BARONESS ORCZY Man in Grey 15 Short reckonings make

long friends. I’ll have a couple of hundred francs now. business; punctuality