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
An arena urging a bull’s death while forbidding the bull to kill contrasts imposed violence with a demand for one-sided restraint. The saying exposes unequal expectations.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The world imagined as a shared house frames cleanliness as a common responsibility. The saying extends care beyond a private dwelling.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A rattlesnake’s tail called eloquent pictures a signal communicating forcefully without words. The saying values unmistakable expression.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A dead creature always available to a hungry vulture pictures a continuing opportunity to feed. The saying gives need an assured object through a stark animal scene.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
The open fields represent room to move beyond confinement. The saying values the relief and possibility of having space to act rather than remaining enclosed.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying recommends dry conditions for sowing and wet conditions for setting plants. It makes the distinction between two tasks the basis of a remembered rule.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Favourable conditions now do not remove the value of reasonable preparation for a change. The cloak image encourages a proportionate precaution, rather than expecting every pleasant situation to turn bad or carrying every possible safeguard.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying treats December thunder as a sign of fine weather ahead. An unusual event is assigned a reassuring predictive meaning.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying withholds certainty about a hop yield until a named calendar point has passed. It emphasises waiting before deciding whether the hoped-for provision exists.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying attributes ripe medlars to time and straw. It makes waiting and a named material partners in bringing a fruit to a later stage.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying pairs timely blossom with timely ripening. It carries an appropriate beginning into an expectation of an appropriate later result.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Changing times are compared with grass that is not always green. The saying reminds readers that present conditions may not remain the same.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Earning a living through dependence on one’s environment connects livelihood with surrounding conditions. The saying recognises resources and relationships beyond an individual.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Noisy torrents contrasted with a seldom-roaring ocean give smaller disturbance more sound than greater depth. A figurative reading values substance over conspicuous display.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying warns against trusting a horse’s heel or a dog’s tooth. It singles out parts of familiar animals associated in the image with possible harm.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The rhyme places hunger and cold beneath furze, but silver and gold beneath broom. It assigns two plant settings opposite conditions of hardship and abundance.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying contrasts water-covered ground with snow-covered ground, assigning scarcity to the first and bread to the second. It gives two winter conditions opposite values.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The rhyme recommends sowing oats and barley on St. David’s day. It ties a named calendar occasion to a specific agricultural task.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Land borrowed from children rather than inherited from ancestors shifts attention from past entitlement to future responsibility. The saying values care for what later people may need.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying gives the sweetest water to wells that are well drawn. It links the manner of obtaining a resource with the quality imagined to result.
Read the explanation and example ↗quote · Geoffrey Chaucer
When April's gentle rain reaches the roots, it ends the dryness left by March. This is a picture of spring returning, rather than a command or a moral rule.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
April’s wind is pictured as a horn announcing favourable conditions for hay and corn. The saying links an early-season sign with a hoped-for later yield.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Snow after Candlemas is pictured as lying on a hot stone. The image suggests a fragile or short-lived covering rather than a lasting return of winter.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The rhyme compares clouds with rocks and towers and predicts frequent showers. It turns the shape of clouds into an expectation of rain.
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