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English Proverbs & Sayings - Part 5

  1. To make the cup run over.
  2. To make (to turn) the air blue.
  3. To measure another man’s foot by one’s own last.
  4. To measure other people’s corn by one’s own bushel.
  5. To pay one back in one’s own coin.
  6. To plough the sand.
  7. To pour water into a sieve.
  8. To pull the chestnuts out of the fire for somebody.
  9. To pull the devil by the tail.
  10. To put a spoke in somebody’s wheel.
  11. To put off till Doomsday.
  12. To put (set) the cart before the horse.
  13. To rob one’s belly to cover one’s back.
  14. To roll in money.
  15. To run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
  16. To save one’s bacon.
  17. To send (carry) owls to Athens.
  18. To set the wolf to keep the sheep.
  19. To stick to somebody like a leech.
  20. To strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
  21. To take counsel of one’s pillow.
  22. To take the bull by the horns.
  23. To teach the dog to bark.
  24. To tell tales out of school.
  25. To throw a stone in one’s own garden.
  26. To throw dust in somebody’s eyes.
  27. To throw straws against the wind.
  28. To treat somebody with a dose of his own medicine.
  29. To use a steam-hammer to crack nuts.
  30. To wash one’s dirty linen in public.
  31. To wear one’s heart upon one’s sleeve.
  32. To weep over an onion.
  33. To work with the left hand.
  34. Tomorrow comes never.
  35. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
  36. Too much knowledge makes the head bald.
  37. Too much of a good thing is good for nothing.
  38. Too much water drowned the miller.
  39. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
  40. True blue will never stain.
  41. True coral needs no painter’s brush.
  42. Truth comes out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.
  43. Truth is stranger than fiction.
  44. Truth lies at the bottom of a well.
  45. Two blacks do not make a white.
  46. Two heads are better than one.
  47. Two is a company, but three is none.
  48. Velvet paws hide sharp claws.
  49. Virtue is its own reward.
  50. Wait for the cat to jump.
  51. Walls have ears.
  52. Wash your dirty linen at home.
  53. Waste not, want not.
  54. We know not what is good until we have lost it.
  55. We never know the value of water till the well is dry.
  56. We shall see what we shall see.
  57. We soon believe what we desire.
  58. Wealth is nothing without health.
  59. Well begun is half done.
  60. What can’t be cured, must be endured.
  61. What is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh.
  62. What is done by night appears by day.
  63. What is done cannot be undone.
  64. What is got over the devil’s back is spent under his belly.
  65. What is lost is lost.
  66. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
  67. What is worth doing at alt is worth doing well.
  68. What must be, must be.
  69. What the heart thinks the tongue speaks.
  70. What we do willingly is easy.
  71. When angry, count a hundred.
  72. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
  73. When children stand quiet, they have done some harm.
  74. When flatterers meet, the devil goes to dinner.
  75. When guns speak it is too late to argue.
  76. When pigs fly.
  77. When Queen Anne was alive.
  78. When the cat is away, the mice will play.
  79. When the devil is blind.
  80. When the fox preaches, take care of your geese.
  81. When the pinch comes, you remember the old shoe.
  82. When three know it, alt know it.
  83. When wine is in wit is out.
  84. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
  85. While the grass grows the horse starves.
  86. While there is life there is hope.
  87. Who breaks, pays.
  88. Who has never tasted bitter, knows not what is sweet.
  89. Who keeps company with the wolf, will learn to howl.
  90. Wise after the event.
  91. With time and patience, the leaf of the mulberry becomes satin.
  92. Words pay no debts.
  93. You can take a horse to the water but you cannot make him drink.
  94. You cannot eat your cake and have it.
  95. You cannot flay the same ox twice.
  96. You cannot judge a tree by its bark.
  97. You cannot teach old dogs new tricks.
  98. You cannot wash charcoal white.
  99. You made your bed, now lie in it.
  100. Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse.
  1. These are really interesting proverbs but some are very difficult to understand. Kindly provide meaning of these proverbs.

  2. Please tell the meaning of these proverbs.

  3. Can we have meaning of these phrases?

  4. Where are the meanings of these phrases? Please provide meaning of these pharases of English language.

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