60,000 QUOTES SPIDER
Dictionary of
English World Proverbs and Sayings
QUOTES, APHORISMS AND PROVERBS 9
Make a virtue of
necessity.
Robert Burton
Matches are made in heaven.
Robert Burton
Believe Robert who has tried it. (Lat., Experto crede Roberto.)
Robert Burton,
Anatomy of Melancholy
No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.
Robert Burton,
Anatomy of Melancholy
Penny wise, pound
foolish.
Robert Burton,
Anatomy of Melancholy
Hold one another's
noses to the grindstone hard.
Robert Burton,
Anatomy of Melancholy
Going as if he trod upon eggs.
Robert Burton,
Anatomy of Melancholy
To interfere in the
affairs of others.
Proverb, (Latin)
To jump into the water for fear of the rain.
Proverb, (French)
To jump out of the frying pan into the fire.
Proverb, (French)
To jump out of the frying-pan and fall into the fire.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To keep one upon hot coals.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To keep one's nose to the grindstone.
Proverb
To keep one's tongue between one's teeth.
Proverb
To keep the wolf from the door.
Proverb
To kick a man when he is down.
Proverb
To kick against the pricks.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To kill a mercer for a comb.
Proverb, (French)
To kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Proverb, (Greek)
To kill the hen by way of getting the egg.
Proverb, (French)
To kill two birds with one stone.
Proverb, (Dutch, Portuguese)
To kill two flies with one flap.
Proverb
To kill with kindness.
Proverb
To know how many beans make five.
Proverb
To know on which side one's bread is buttered.
Proverb
To know where the shoe pinches.
Proverb
To know which way the wind blows.
Proverb
To laugh in one's sleeve.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To laugh on the wrong side on one's mouth.
Proverb
To lay it on with a trowel.
Proverb
To lay up for a rainy day.
Proverb
To lead one by the nose.
Proverb, (Latin)
To lean against a tottering wall.
Proverb, (Latin)
To leave no stone unturned.
Proverb, (Latin)
To leave the nuts. (To put away childish things.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To let the cat out of the bag.
Proverb
To lick into shape.
Proverb
To live at the beck and call of another.
Proverb, (Latin)
To live from hand to mouth.
Proverb, (French)
To live in clover.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
To lock the stable after the horses are taken.
Proverb, (Italian)
To look a gift horse in the mouth.
Proverb
To look as if butter would not melt in one's mouth.
Proverb
To look at a shipwreck from the shore.
Proverb, (Latin)
To look at both sides of a penny.
Proverb
To look for a needle in a bottle of hay.
Proverb, (German)
To look for a needle in a bundle of hay.
Proverb, (French)
To look for a needle in a haystack.
Proverb, (Latin)
To look for five feet in a cat.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To look for noon at fourteen o'clock.
Proverb, (French)
To lose his last farthing.
Proverb, (Latin)
To lose one eye that you may deprive another of two.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To lose the ship for a halfpennyworth of tar.
Proverb
To love as the cat loves mustard.
Proverb
To make a birthday a day of grief. (To turn joy into sorrow.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To make a black man white.
Proverb, (Latin)
To make a cat's paw of one.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To make a mountain of a molehill.
Proverb
To make a palace of a pigstye.
Proverb
To make a person turn in his grave.
Proverb
To make a virtue of necessity.
Proverb, (French)
To make an elephant of a fly.
Proverb, (Dutch, Italian)
To make bricks without straw.
Proverb
To make coqs-a-l'ane.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To make ducks and drakes of.
Proverb
To make ends meet.
Proverb
To make fish of one and flesh of another.
Proverb
To make of a flea a knight cap-a-pie.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
To make one hole by way of stopping another.
Proverb, (French)
To make two bites of a cherry.
Proverb
To make two extremes meet.
Proverb
To make two hits with one stone.
Proverb, (French)
To make two nails at one heat.
Proverb, (Italian)
To make waves in a cup.
(Lat., Exitare fluctus in simpulo.)
Proverb
To mingle heaven and earth. (Inextricably to confuse matters.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To miss the mark.
Proverb, (Latin)
To mix fire and water.
Proverb, (Latin)
To move every rope: to cram on all sail.
Proverb, (Latin)
To nourish a serpent in one's breast.
Proverb, (Latin)
To offer one candle to God and another to the devil.
Proverb, (French)
To open, as you would an oyster.
Proverb, (Latin)
To oppose by stratagem.
Proverb, (Latin)
To overshoot the mark.
Proverb, (Latin)
To parade the gallows before the town.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To pay off a grudge by a vote.
Proverb, (Latin)
To pay one in his own coin.
Proverb,
(Dutch, Italian, Portuguese)
To pay person in his own coin.
Proverb
To peer out the mote in another's eye and not the beam in your own.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To piece the lion's skin with that of the fox.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To play first fiddle.
Proverb
To play second fiddle.
Proverb
To pluck the goose without making it cry out.
Proverb, (French)
To pound water in a mortar.
Proverb, (Latin)
To pour oil upon the waters.
Proverb
To pour water into a sieve.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To pour water on a drowned mouse.
Proverb
To pray to the saint until the danger is past.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To promise more butter than bread.
Proverb, (French)
To promise more carts than oxen.
Proverb, (Italian)
To pull down the house for the sake of the mortar.
Proverb, (Italian)
To put a good face on a bad game.
Proverb, (French)
To put a racehorse to the plough.
Proverb
To put a spoke in one's wheel.
Proverb
To put bread into a cold oven.
Proverb, (Latin)
To put his finger on his lips. (To refuse to reveal what he knows.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To put his tail between his legs.
Proverb, (Latin)
To put in a needle and take out a bar.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To put on one's doublet before one's shirt.
Proverb, (Italian)
To put on the mask of a dancer when wearing the toga. (To do that
which is out of place and inconsistent.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To put one's best foot foremost.
Proverb
To put one's nose out of joint.
Proverb
To put out the fire with tow.
Proverb, (Italian)
To put salt on a bird's tail.
Proverb
To put the cart before the horse.
Proverb, (Dutch, Italian, Latin)
To put the plough before the oxen.
Proverb, (French)
To put the same shoe on every foot.
Proverb, (Latin)
To put water into a basket.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To put your finger into another man's pie.
Proverb
To quarrel over a straw.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To quarrel with his little finger.
Proverb
To quench fire with fire.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To quench fire with oil.
Proverb, (Latin)
To rain upon the wet.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
To re-open a wound.
Proverb, (Latin)
To reckon without one's host.
Proverb
To reckon without one's hostess.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
To reckon without the hostess.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To repel force by force.
Proverb, (Latin)
To rob Peter to pay Paul.
Proverb
To row in the same boat.
Proverb
To row together, or in time. (To act in unison.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To run with the hard and hunt with the hounds.
Proverb
To run with the hare and hold with the hounds.
Proverb
To sacrifice certain for speculative profit.
Proverb, (Latin)
To satisfy one's wants at a small cost.
Proverb, (Latin)
To save at the spiggot, and let it run out at the bong-hole.
Proverb, (German)
To save at the spigot and let it run out of the bunghole.
Proverb
To save for old age, earning a maravedi and drinking three.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To see the sky through a funnel.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To see which way the cat jumps.
Proverb
To seek for a knot in a bulrush.
(Lat., Nodum in scirpo quaerere.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To sell a cat for a hare.
Proverb, (Portuguese, Spanish)
To sell honey to the beekeeper.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To sell the bird in the bush.
Proverb, (Italian)
To sell the honey to one who has the bees.
Proverb, (Italian)
To sell the skin of the bear before it is caught.
Proverb, (Italian)
To send away with a flea in his ear.
Proverb
To send one arrow after another.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To set the Thames on fire.
Proverb
To sew the fox's skin to the lion's.
Proverb, (French)
To shave an egg.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To shiver at work, and sweat at meals.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To show a clean pair of heels.
Proverb
To show the cloven foot.
Proverb
To show the sole of the foot.
Proverb, (Latin)
To show the sun with a torch.
Proverb, (French)
To shut the stable door when the steed is stolen.
Proverb
To sign for both parties.
Proverb, (French)
To sing out of tune and persist in it.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To sing to an ass.
Proverb, (Latin)
To sink a well by the river side.
Proverb, (German)
To sit brooding over treasures, and enjoy them not.
Proverb, (Latin)
To sit on two seats.
Proverb, (Latin)
To skin a flint for a farthing, and spoil a knife worth fourpence.
Proverb
To smell of the lamp.
Proverb
To snatch the lamb from the wolf.
Proverb, (Latin)
To sow one's wild oats.
Proverb
To sow our wild oats.
Proverb
To split hairs.
Proverb
To spoil the ship for a halfpennyworth of tar.
Proverb
To spur a horse on level ground.
Proverb, (Italian)
To stab the dead.
Proverb, (Latin)
To stand in one's own light.
Proverb
To start the hare for another's profit.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
To steal a sheep and give away the trotters for God's sake.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
To steal the leather, and give away the shoes for God's sake.
Proverb, (German)
To steal the pig, and give away the pettitoes for God's sake.
Proverb, (Italian, Spanish)
To stew in one's own juice.
Proverb
To stop the hole after the mischief is done.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To strike with a leaden sword. (To use a useless argument.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To strip one altar to cover another.
Proverb, (Italian)
To strip Peter to clothe Paul.
Proverb, (Italian)
To strip St. Peter to clothe St. Paul.
Proverb, (French)
To stumble twice over the same stone.
Proverb, (Latin)
To suit present circumstances.
Proverb, (Latin)
To swallow a camel, and strain at a gnat.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To swallow both sea and fish.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To swim a river with a bridge close by.
Proverb
To swim between two waters.
Proverb, (French)
To take a leaf out of one's book.
Proverb
To take a shirt from a naked man.
Proverb, (Latin)
To take blood from a stone.
Proverb
To take counsel of one's pillow.
Proverb
To take him down a peg.
Proverb
To take one down a peg or two.
Proverb
To take one foot out the mire and put the other into it.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To take one up before he is down.
Proverb
To take opportunity by the forelock.
Proverb, (French, Spanish)
To take out a burning coal with another's hand.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To take the bull by the horns.
Proverb
To take the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw.
Proverb, (French)
To take the gilt off the gingerbread.
Proverb
To take the law into one's own hands.
Proverb
To take the rough with the smooth.
Proverb
To take the will for the deed.
Proverb
To take the wind out of one's sails.
Proverb
