W.C. Hazlitt, comp. English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. 1907.
An early winter to As cold as
An early winter: / a surly winter.
An easy fool / is a knave’s tool.
An eel’s held by the tail surer than a woman.
This is called “an ancient truth” in Field’s Amends for Ladies, 1618 (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi. 157).
An egg and to bed. Sussex.
An egg at Easter.
See Hazlitt’s Faiths and Folklore, 1905, p. 201.
An egg will be in three bellies in twenty-four hours.
An emmet may work its heart out, but can never make honey.
An empty bag cannot stand upright.
An empty belly hears nobody.
An empty purse and a new house make a wise man but too late.
A bolza vazia, e a casa acabada faz e home sesudo, mastarde. Port.
An enemy may chance to give good counsel.
An enemy to beauty is a foe to nature.
An enemy’s mouth seldom speaketh well.
“It is a comyn prouerbe, an enemyes mouth sayth seeld wel.”—Reynard the Fox, 1481, c. 4, repr. 1844, p. 5.
An Englishman’s house is his castle.
Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608, where mine host says: “my house my castle.”
An envious man waxeth lean.
MS. 15th cent. ap. Retr. Rev. 3rd S., ii. 309.
An envious man waxes lean with the fatness of his neighbour.
An evil conscience breaks many a man’s neck.
An evil lesson is soon learned.
An excellent soldier: he lacks nothing but a heart and a feather.
An excellent tale, if it were told in Greek.
An Henry-Sophister or Sophista.
So they are called, who, after four years’ standing in the University, stay themselves from commencing Batchelors of Arts, to render them in some colleges more capable of preferment.
That tradition is senseless (and inconsistent with his princely magnificence) of such who fancy that King Henry the Eighth, coming to Cambridge, stayed all the sophisters a year, who expected that a year of grace should have been given to them. More probable it is, that because that king is commonly conceived of great strength and stature, that these Sophistæ Henriciani were elder and bigger than others. The truth is this: in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, after the destruction of monasteries, learning was at a loss; and the University (thanks be unto God! more scared than hurt) stood at a gaze what would become of her. Hereupon, many students stayed themselves two, three, some four years; as who would see how their degrees (before they took them) would be rewarded and maintained.—R. Peacham, in his Compleat Gentleman, edit. 1627, p. 106, says that he could make maps by geometrical rules at thirteen or fourteen years of age adding, “as I did at Cambridge, when I was of Trinitie Colledge, and a Iunior Sophister.” The Libellus Sophistarum, by Robert Alynton, was published for the use of both Universities by Pynson and De Worde. See notices of the editions in Bibl. Coll. and Notes, 1876 and 1882. See for a different, but in my opinion, not very satisfactory explanation, N. and Q., 2nd, S., viii. 86.
An honest look covereth many faults.
An honest man and a good bowler.
An honest man’s word is as good as his bond.
An honest miller hath a golden thumb.
A C. Mery Talys, undated ed., No. 10. “The Somersetshire people reply, None but a cuckold can see it.”—R. This was presumably because through his eyes the thumb might appear yellow or golden. But in the work first cited, on the contrary, it is added, that no cuckold has the power.
An horse hired / never tired.
An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.
An hour may destroy what an age was building.
An hour of pain is as long as a day of pleasure.
An hour’s cold will suck out seven years’ heat.
An hungry man.
See A hungry man.
An idle brain is the devil’s shop [or work-house].
An idle head is a box for the wind.
An idle person is the devil’s playfellow.
An ill agreement is better than a good judgment.
An ill cook cannot lick his own fingers.
An ill cook should have a good cleaver.
An ill cow may have a good calf.
An ill father desireth not an ill son.
An ill life, an ill end.
An ill man is worst when he appeareth good.
An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune.
An ill paymaster never wants an excuse.
An ill plea should be well pleaded.
An ill receiver makes an ill paymaster.
An ill stake standeth longest.
An ill style is better than a lewd story.
An ill-timed jest hath ruined many.
An ill turn is soon done.
An ill workman quarrels with his tools.
Mechant ouvrier jamais ne trouvera bons outils. Fr.—R.
An ill wound is cured, not an ill name.
An inch breaketh no square.
Gascoigne’s Poems, by Hazlitt, i. 495. Peradventure a day or two more will break no square.—Chamberlain’s Letter to Dudley Carleton, March 5, 1600–1. Some add, in a burn of thorns. “Pour un petit ni avant ni arriére.” Fr.—R.
An inch in a man’s nose is much.
An inch in a miss is as good as an ell.
We now say: A miss is as good as a mile. Heywood says merely: “As good is an inche as an ell,” and the other person in the Dialogue goes on to say:
An inch in an hour is a foot in a day’s work.
An injury forgiven is better than an injury revenged.
An insolent lord is not a gentleman.
An iron windfall. New Forest.
Anything unfairly taken.
An oak is not felled at one chop.
An obedient wife commands her husband.
An occasion lost cannot be redeemed.
An old ape hath an old eye.
Rowley’s Match at Midnight, 1633 (D. O. P. 1825, vii. 327).
An old child sucks hard.
i.e., “Children, when they growe to age, proue chargeable.”—Manningham’s Diary, 1602, edit. 1868, p. 12.
An old band is a captain’s honour.
An old bird is not caught with chaff.
Timon, a play (circa 1590), iv. 2, ed. Dyce; Clarke’s Parœm. 1639, 158.
An old cat laps as much as a young.
An old dog barks not in vain.
Un vieil chien jamais ne jappe en vain. Fr.—R.
An old dog biteth sore.
An old dog will learn no new tricks.
Walker (1672). “’Tis all one to physic the dead as to instruct old men. [Greek] Senis mutare linguam, as an absurd, impossible thing. Old age is intractable, morose, slow, and forgetful. If they have been put in a wrong way at first, no hopes then of reducing them. Senex psittacus negligit ferulam.”—R.
An old ewe dressed lamb-fashion.
An old fox need learn no craft.
An old fox understands a trap.
An old friend is a new house.
An old goat is never the more reverend for his beard.
An old knave is no babe.
An old man in a house is a good sign.
An old man is a bed full of bones.
An old man never wants a tale to tell.
An old man twice a child.
Senex bis puer. Latimer’s Sermons, 1549, edit. Arber, p. 56.
An old man who weds a buxom young maiden, bids fair to become a freeman of Buckingham [i.e., a cuckold].
An old naught / will never be aught.
An old ox makes a straight furrow.
Buey viejo surco derecho. Span.
An old ox will find a shelter for himself.
An old physician, a young lawyer.
An old physician, because of his experience; a young lawyer, because he having but little practice, will have leisure enough to attend to your business; and desiring thereby to recommend himself, and get more, will be very diligent in it. The Italians say. An old physician, a young barber.—R.
An old sack asketh much patching.
An old thief desires a new halter.
An old wise man’s shadow is better than a young buzzard’s sword.
An old woman in a wooden ruff.
i.e., in an antique dress.—R.
An old wrinkle never wears out.
An Oliver’s knighthood.
A contemptuous expression to signify a thing of little or no value, originating in the opponents of the Protector Cromwell.
An open door may tempt a saint.
An open knave is a great fool.
An ounce of fortune is worth a pound of forecast.
An ounce of mother wit is worth a pound of learning.
It is also said: An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit. “The French say, An ounce of good fortune, &c. Gutta fortunæ præ dolio sapientiæ.”—R. In Rivett’s Mr. Smirke or the Divine in Mode, 1676, p. 2, we have: “An ounce of mother wit is worth a pound of clergy.”
An ounce of state requires a pound of gold.
B. of M. R. 1629, No. 26.
An ounce of wisdom is worth a pound of wit.
An owl in an ivy-bush.
See Nares’ Glossary, 1859, v. Ivy-Bush.
An ox, when he is loose, licks himself at pleasure.
An ugly woman is a disease of the stomach, a handsome woman a disease of the head.
An unbidden guest knoweth not where to sit.
An unhappy lad may make a good man.
An unpeaceable man hath no neighbour.
Anderton jewels.
Duck-winged cocks are so called in Lancashire.
Anger and haste hinder good counsel.
Anger begins with folly, and ends with repentance.
Anger edgeth valour.
Anger is a sworn enemy.
Anger makes a rich man hated, and a poor man scorned.
Anger punishes itself.
Anglia Mons, Pons, Fons, Ecclesia, Fæmina, Luna.
Lupton’s London and the Countrey Carbonadoed, &c., 1632 (Books of Characters, 1857, 303).
Angry men seldom want woe.
Another threshed what I reaped.
Another’s bread costs dear.
Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi.
Antiquity is not always a mark of verity.
Any port in a storm.
Anything for a quiet life.
Anything may be spoke, if it be under the rose (1647).
Any tooth, good barber.
Apelles was not a master-painter the first day.
Apes are never more beasts than when they wear men’s clothes.
Apothecaries would not give pills in sugar unless they were bitter.
Apples, pears, and nuts spoil the voice.
Apples, pears, hawthorn, quick, oak: set them at All-hollon-tide [All-Hallow-Tide], and command them to prosper; set them at Candlemas, and intreat them to grow.
Application makes the ass.
April and May are the key of all the year.
April cling, / good for nothing. Somerset.
April showers / bring summer flowers.
April weather / rain and sunshine both together.
Archdeacon Pratt would eat no fat. Howell.
Comp. Jack Sprat. I suspect the archdeacon was a later improvement.
Are there traitors at the table that the loaf is turned the wrong side upwards?
Are you there with your bears?
See Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, p. 45.
Argus at home, but a mole abroad.
In casa Argo, di fuori talpa. Ital. A man should be scrupulously attentive to what is going forward in his own house, but blind to what passes in another’s.—R.
Arnoul is at dinner. Walpoliana.
Arthur could not tame a woman’s tongue.
Arthur himself had but his time.
Arthur was not but whilst he was.
Art must be deluded by art.
Art thou in that lock?
Lady Alimony, 1659, iii. 3. The meaning seems to be, is that thy cue or game?
As a cat loves mustard.
As a wolf is like a dog, so is a flatterer like a friend.
As angry as a wasp.
Gascoigne’s Steel Glas, 1576 (Works, by Hazlitt, ii. 204).
As bad as Jeffreys. New Forest.
As bald as a coot.
As bare as a bird’s tail.
Twelve Mery Gestys of the Widow Edyth, 1525, by Walter Smith, or Old Engl. Jest Books, iii. 102.
As bare as the back of my hand.
As bare as the birch at Yule even.
In allusion to the Christmas log. It is spoken of one in extreme poverty.—D.
As bashful as a Lenten lover.
As big a liar as Tom Pepper. Leeds.
Dialect of Leeds, 1862, 405. The devil is said to have given up Tom in despair.
As big as a Dorchester butt.
Higson’s MSS. Coll. 206.
As big as a goose’s egg.
Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede (1394), ed. Skeat, line 225.
As big as a parson’s barn. Dorsetshire.
As big as brass.
See Porter’s Two Angrie Women of Abington, 1599, p. 105; and Dyce’s note.
As big as bull-beef at Candlemas.
As bitter as gall.
As black as a coal.
As a crow or raven; as the devil, as jet, as ink, as soot.—R.
As black as my hat.
When tall black silk hats were in general use, this expression was much in the mouths of certain people in describing old port, which had kept its colour. Tawny port has lost it. Another form is: as black as my boot.
As blake [i.e., yellow] as a paigle [cowslip]. North and East.
See Forby’s Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830, 241–2. Other forms are pagle (used by Jonson) and peagle.
As blind as a bat or a mole.
The velocity of a bat is a reductio ad absurdum of part of this saying.
“Talpâ cæcior.” As blind as a mole: though, indeed, a mole is not absolutely blind; but has perfect eyes, and those not covered with any membrane, as some have reported; but open, and to be found withoutside the head, if one search diligently, otherwise they may easily escape one, being very small, and lying hid in the fur. So that it must be granted that a mole sees but obscurely, yet so much as is sufficient for her manner of living, being most part under ground. “Hypsæa cæcior.” This Hypsæa was a woman famous for her blindness. “Tiresiâ cæcior.” The fable of Tiresias, and how he came to be blind, is well known. “Leberide cæcior. Est autem Leberis exuviæ sive spolium serpentis, in quo apparent effigies duntaxat oculorum, ac membranula quædam tenuissima qua serpentum oculi præteguntur.” A beetle is thought to be blind, because in the evening it will fly with its full force against a man’s face, or anything else which happens to be in its way; which other insects, as bees, hornets, &c., will not do.—R.
As bold as Beauchamp.
“Of this surname there were many Earls of Warwick, amongst whom (saith Dr. Fuller) I conceive Thomas, the first of that name, gave chief occasion to this proverb; who in the year 1346, with one squire and six archers, fought in hostile manner with a hundred armed men, at Hogges, in Normandy, and overthrew them, slaying sixty Normans, and giving the whole fleet means to land.—R. The bold Beauchamps forms the title of a lost drama by T. Heywood, alluded to in Fletcher’s Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1613, and in Suckling’s Goblins, 1646. The latter thought that it was a play of some merit, and must have witnessed its performance. The passage runs thus:—
As bold as blind Bayard.
“And forthwith toke penne and ynke and began boldly to renne forth as blynde bayard in thys presente werke.”—Caxton’s Prologue to the Recueyll of the Historyes of Troye (translated in or before 1471). See Blades, ii. 132, and also Appius and Virginia, 1575, apud Dodsley, xii. 348. In A Dictionarie French and English, 1570, the publisher says in the Preface: “Blinde Bayard is boldest to launch into the deepe.”
As bold as brass.
As brag as a body-louse.
Gammer Gurton’s Needle, 1575, act ii. sc. 4.
As brisk as a bee in a tar-pot.
As brisk as a body-louse.
Antidote against Melancholy, 1749, p. 139.
As broad as it is long.
As broken a ship as this has come to land.
As brown as a berry.
Hazlitt’s Early Popular Poetry, iii., 243.
As busy as a good wife at an oven, and neither meal nor dough.
As busy as a hen that hath but one chicken.
As busy as Batty. Devon.
As busy as the devil in a high wind.
As cap in cap-case.
As clean as a new penny.
“Clean as a penny.”—Antidote against Melancholy, 1749, p. 139.
As clean as a pink.
See Notes and Queries, Jan. 27, 1883.
As clean as a whistle.
Any one who has witnessed the manufacture of a rustic whistle can be at no loss for the origin of this saying. A piece of young ash about four inches long and the thickness of a finger is hammered all over with the handle of a knife until the bark is disengaged from the wood and capable of being drawn off. A notch and a cut or two having been made in the stick, the cuticle is replaced and the instrument complete. When stripped of its covering, the white wood with its colourless sap presents the cleanest appearance imaginable—the very acmé of cleanness.—C. P. T. in Notes and Queries.
As clear as a bell.
Spoken principally of a voice or sound without any jarring or harshness.—R.
As clear as a pikestaff.
As clear as copperplate.
Spoken of a very legible hand, and a figure borrowed from the old copybooks, where the different characters in use are engraved on copper from originals prepared by Cocker and other masters.
As clear as crystal.
As clear as the sun at noontide.
As cold as a cucumber.
Fletcher, in his Cupids Revenge, 1615, makes Nisus say, that “young maids were as cold as cucumbers.” We now express it, As cool as a cucumber,—a less meaning phrase, after all.
As cold as charity.