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
Giving and receiving with love both described as giving make the recipient an active part of an exchange. The saying values care expressed on either side.
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Even a creature regarded as troublesome may still deserve basic kindness. The crust of bread provides a modest image of care that is not reserved only for those considered good or useful.
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Affection or special treatment may follow personal preference rather than an impartial rule. The saying can expose favouritism in shared decisions, but freely chosen affection is different from unfairly allocating a responsibility, benefit or opportunity that needs a fair process.
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The saying contrasts lending oneself to others with giving oneself to oneself. It encourages helping without surrendering all of one’s time, attention or agency.
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The saying compares love with a cough as something that may make itself noticeable. It suggests that feelings can show through conduct, but appearances do not prove affection, and neither love nor illness should be inferred confidently from this comparison.
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Possessiveness and a demand for dominance can make equal companionship difficult. Love and lordship are pictured as unwilling to share their place with others.
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A wish to possess or rule can interfere with friendship. The saying invites scrutiny of exclusivity and power in relationships rather than treating them as unavoidable.
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A relationship may need trust and dependable conduct to support that trust. The saying connects affection with steadiness, without demanding unquestioning belief, fixed roles or staying in a harmful relationship.
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Love sometimes arriving after marriage allows affection to develop later than a formal union. It describes one possible sequence rather than a required one.
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Love can motivate people to overcome divisions or difficulties. The word “all” expresses an ideal of love’s strength, rather than a literal guarantee.
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Affection and practical arrangements both shape a shared life. The saying draws attention to material circumstances without proving that money determines every marriage or relationship.
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Care and trust can sometimes reduce jealousy. The saying presents an ideal relationship between those feelings rather than a guarantee that love eliminates insecurity or control.
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The phrase connects love with hurt. It acknowledges that a valued attachment may bring vulnerability, disappointment or grief.
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Affection can make someone overlook faults or view a person favourably despite them. The saying describes a possible influence on judgement, without proving that love removes discernment or that overlooking harmful conduct is desirable.
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The saying compares love to a baby needing tenderness. It presents affection as something to care for gently rather than assume will sustain itself.
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The saying compares love with holding a butterfly. Its contrast pictures too much restraint and insufficient care as different threats to an attachment.
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The saying refuses to call love a lack. It gives affection the value of something present or sufficient rather than treating it as an absence.
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Affection can reveal whether admirable principles are carried into everyday treatment of another person. Love is compared with a test of virtue, while leaving room to judge character through conduct beyond a close relationship as well.
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Love killing time and time killing love reverse the same two subjects. The saying contrasts absorbed companionship with the possibility of affection fading.
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Affection can reach across distances or social divisions that might otherwise separate people. Bounds are the limits that the feeling seems able to cross.
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Affection can exist in modest homes as well as in grand surroundings. The cottage and court reject wealth or rank as a requirement for love, without idealising hardship or claiming that material conditions never affect relationships.
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Love turning copper to gold, poverty to riches and tears to pearls pictures affection transforming perceived value. The saying gives feeling a beautifying role.
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The saying first makes love pass the time and then makes time pass love. The reversed relationship contrasts absorbed companionship with the possibility that affection changes.
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Love requested when least deserved places need for care beside disappointing conduct. The saying asks whether support can continue when someone struggles or errs.
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