A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

c 1435 J. LYDGATE Minor Poems (EETS) 666 Harde to likke hony out of a marbil

stoon, For ther is nouthir licour nor moisture. 1666 G. TORRIANO Italian Proverbs 161

There’s no getting of bloud out of that wall. 1836 MARRYAT Japhet iv. There’s no

getting blood out of a turnip. 1850 DICKENS David Copperfield xi. Blood cannot be

obtained from a stone, neither can anything on account be obtained.. from Mr. Micawber.

1925 J. S. FLETCHER False Scent ix. ‘You’ll never get it. .. ‘ ‘He’ll have to pay me when

he loses!’ ‘You can’t get blood out of a stone.’ 2001 K. HALL PAGE Body in Moonlight

vii. 120 ‘“You can’t get blood from a stone,” Nick was saying. They were both really

ripping. You could tell.’ 2002 London Review of Books 3 Jan. 5 In Dr Eckener’s time you

couldn’t get blood from a turnip, and you couldn’t get helium from any place but the

United States of America. meanness; possibility and impossibility

BLOOD is thicker than water

Predominantly used to mean that a family connection will outweigh other relationships.
Cf. 12th-cent. Ger. ouch hoer ich sagen, daz sippebluot von wassere niht verdirbet, also I hear
it said that kin-blood is not spoiled by water; 1412 LYDGATE Troy Book (EETS) III. 2071 For
naturely blod will ay of kynde Draw vn-to blod, wher he may it fynde.

1813 J. RAY English Proverbs (ed. 5) 281 Blood’s thicker than water. 1815 SCOTT

Guy Mannering II. xvii. Weel—blood’s thicker than water—she’s welcome to the

cheeses. 1914 WODEHOUSE Man upstairs & Other Stories 115 But though blood, as he

was wont to remark while negotiating his periodical loans, is thicker than water, a

brother-in-law’s affection has its limits. 2000 G. FARRELLY Duped by Derivatives i. 1

They say blood is thicker than water. That was all Theresa Clancy could think about that

Wednesday morning when she opened the office door. family

The BLOOD of the martyrs is the seed of the Church

The Church has thrived on persecution. Cf. TERTULLIAN Apologeticus I. semen est
sanguis Christianorum, the blood of Christians is seed.

1560 J. PILKINGTON Aggeus the Prophet U4V Cipriane wrytes that the bloud of

Martirs is the seede of the Church. 1655 T. FULLER Church Hist. Britain I. iv. Of all

Shires in England, Stafford-shire was.. the largest sown with the Seed of the Church, I

mean, the bloud of primitive Martyrs. 1889 J. LUBBOCK Pleasures of Life II. xi. The

Inquisition has even from its own point of view proved generally a failure. The blood of

the martyrs is the seed of the Church. 1979 Church Times 15 June 10 It is not merely that

‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’; it is that a little persecution is good

for you. adversity; Christianity