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
Authority rather than truth making law distinguishes power to establish a rule from the rule’s factual correctness. The saying raises a question about legitimacy.
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A bad situation seeming good only after something worse occurs describes judgment altered by comparison. The saying questions relative comfort with an unsatisfactory condition.
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The saying pictures bad news moving quickly between people. It emphasises the rapid circulation of reports of trouble or misfortune.
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Bargains capable of ruin question an attractive price as a complete measure of value. The saying warns of costs beyond the apparent saving.
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The phrase describes barking at the wrong tree. It points to pursuing a mistaken target or line of inquiry.
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The saying calls barley straw good fodder when the cow gives water. It connects a judgment of feed with an unusual description of the animal’s output.
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Magic said to obey natural laws challenges an appearance that might be mistaken for exemption from ordinary explanation. The saying asks a reader not to be fooled.
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Beauty called eloquent while silent gives appearance an influence without spoken words. The saying notices an impression that may precede explanation.
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The phrase imagines beer as a pair of goggles. It humorously describes attraction being perceived differently while someone has been drinking.
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The saying prefers brain to brawn. It values thought or judgment over reliance on physical force alone.
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Excessive skepticism preferred to excessive trust values caution about claims. The saying gives doubt a protective role.
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Poor instruction can leave someone with mistakes that need to be unlearned. The saying warns about teaching quality rather than making ignorance an ideal.
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The phrase puts a big fish in a little sea. As a human analogy, it describes someone prominent within a relatively small setting.
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The saying contrasts a black cow with white milk. In the supplied interpretation, an unfavourable judgment of something need not describe everything it offers.
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The phrase asks for someone to have a lucky day. It presents another person’s good fortune as the desired result without identifying how it would be brought about.
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The saying ranks butter differently across the day: gold in the morning, silver at noon and lead at night. The metal sequence makes its imagined value decline with time.
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Doing said to produce conviction links engagement with a firmer sense of a task or idea. The saying values what experience may add to an initial understanding.
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Knowing described as leading to belief connects understanding with a position one comes to accept. The saying values a basis for conviction beyond assertion alone.
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The phrase asks for plain naming instead of evasive description. In the checked idiomatic sense, it favours speaking directly about what one means.
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A monkey asked whether it knows ginger’s taste questions whether a recipient can appreciate what is offered. The animal question leaves its specific comparison unstated.
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The saying calls cash king. It gives immediately available money a position of priority or power through a royal metaphor.
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Do not offer something valuable where it will be neither understood nor appreciated. Pearls and swine create an intentionally sharp contrast between value and reception.
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The saying proposes catching a bird by putting salt on its tail. Its apparent method invites the question of how someone reaches the tail in the first place.
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Cats catching mice without seeking God’s approval question an elevated motive being assigned to an ordinary action. The saying contrasts conduct with an asserted religious purpose.
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