Knowledge.

Meaning: The rhyme presents a spring ague as medicine fit for a king. It gives a feverish illness a surprising positive value rather than simply treating it as misfortune.

Meaning: The saying treats apples, eggs and nuts as acceptable after someone it calls a slut. It uses a demeaning label while making an unverified claim about food handled by another person.

Meaning: 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.

Meaning: The saying contrasts an Argus-like watcher at home with a mole abroad. It pictures someone sharply observant in familiar surroundings but much less perceptive elsewhere.

Meaning: The saying takes a fair, clear twenty-fourth of August as grounds for hope about the coming autumn. One day is made a sign of a much longer period.

Meaning: A measure can register one property without recognising the differences that matter for another judgement. Equal weight does not mean equal value; choose evidence suited to the question.

Meaning: The saying uses a sloe tree’s white blossom as a cue to sow barley. It gives a visible plant sign priority over whether the immediate weather is dry or wet.

Meaning: 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.

Meaning: An outward container does not establish the quality of what is inside. Look for evidence about the substance rather than relying on packaging, appearance or a reassuring presentation.

Meaning: The saying promises vigorous beans after sowing in mud. Growing like wood gives its confidence in that method an exaggerated image of strength.

Meaning: Making a wager is easy and does not itself demonstrate knowledge or judgement. The dismissive wording challenges treating willingness to stake something as proof of being right, rather than fairly describing the person making the bet.

Meaning: Trying every available thing without discrimination is pictured as eventually biting a poisonous weed. The warning favours judgment over indiscriminate sampling; it is a figurative caution, not evidence that curiosity is dangerous or a guide to identifying safe plants.

Editorial context: Bats can see. This expression exaggerates a failure to notice; it is not an accurate animal fact or a fair judgement about people who are blind.

Meaning: The expression exaggerates a failure to notice something or difficulty seeing it. Its bat comparison is factually misleading: bats can see. It should not be used to equate visual disability with carelessness or lack of understanding.