Words worth understanding
Start with the thought in plain English. Then explore the imagery, a practical example, when to use it, and what the saying does not mean.
4,000 entries with editorial explanations. The wider collection also contains entries still awaiting an individual interpretation.
proverb · Traditional
The saying expresses trust that divine care supports a person who uses resources well. A good spender’s imagined treasurer turns provision into a religious image.
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True happiness located in what is eternal gives lasting or transcendent value priority over passing experience. The saying expresses an ideal of permanence.
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Trusting God while tying a camel pairs faith with practical responsibility. The saying refuses to make confidence a substitute for an available precaution in its image.
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The saying combines trust in God with keeping gunpowder dry. It places faith beside practical preparedness instead of letting trust replace attention to the means at hand.
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A doctor’s ability questioned without God’s help expresses dependence on divine support within a religious outlook. The saying places care in a larger spiritual frame.
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Make use of available practical means while trusting in divine help. The saying combines action with religious confidence rather than treating belief as a reason to do nothing.
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People putting a face on God rather than receiving one reverses a familiar direction of representation. The saying presents religious imagery as shaped by human description.
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The speaker places trust in divine purpose above an apparent threat. Frost represents a force that might destroy something, while God’s will is pictured as stronger.
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God punishing cabbages and also hares gives a change affecting one thing consequences for another. The saying combines dependence with a religious image.
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God opening another door after closing one expresses hope for a new possibility following a lost option. The saying gives change a providential image.
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The saying expresses belief that divine will can make different circumstances serve the same outcome. Rain from every wind pictures that religious confidence.
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The gods laughing at human talk of the future pictures plans or predictions exceeding human certainty. It gives future confidence an ironic religious contrast.
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A cock raising its head while drinking interpreted as thanking God gives an ordinary movement a grateful religious meaning. The saying invites appreciation through an animal image.
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God forgotten after danger passes contrasts urgent appeal with later neglect. The saying questions attention that lasts only while something is needed.
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The devil laughing at talk of the future uses a mocking figure to challenge confidence in prediction. The saying reminds a planner that events may differ from expectations.
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A place dedicated to good can still face an opposing influence. The paired church and chapel give that tension a religious image.
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The saying condemns encouraging war through a religious image of serving evil. It urges scrutiny of rhetoric that turns violence into a cause for enthusiasm.
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Being relatives with and in all things expresses an expansive sense of connection. The saying gives relationships a scope beyond an immediate household.
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Avoiding evil linked with gaining eternal life connects conduct with a religious hope. The saying presents an ethical instruction through an afterlife reward.
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A celebration fits its own occasion. The saying links the enjoyment of Yule with the time set aside for it rather than treating festivity as suitable for every moment.
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