proverb · Traditional
As the old cock crows so crows the young.
People may copy the habits and manner of those they observe. Those setting an example should consider what their conduct invites others to repeat.
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411 matching explanations
proverb · Traditional
As the twig is bent the tree's inclined.
Early influences may leave a lasting direction in someone’s habits. The inclined tree develops the bent-twig image, without proving that a person cannot change or that upbringing explains every later choice.
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Be captain of your own ship.
Take an active part in directing your own decisions. The ship’s captain represents responsibility and agency, without implying that a person controls every circumstance or should reject help, obligations or advice.
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Beauty buys no beef.
Attractive appearance does not by itself meet practical needs. The saying contrasts admiration with material provision; it does not make beauty worthless or define a person’s value by what they can provide.
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Beauty is no inheritance.
Beauty is not a dependable possession that can be treated like a lasting estate. The saying warns against relying on appearance as permanent security, without denying anyone’s dignity as appearances change.
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Better be half hanged than ill wed.
The saying exaggerates the misery of an unhappy marriage by comparing it with severe punishment. It stresses the importance of a workable relationship, while rejecting the idea that either violence or lasting distress must be accepted.
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Better free in a foreign land, than a serf at home.
Freedom abroad preferred to servitude at home gives liberty priority over familiar location. The saying contrasts belonging with coercive dependence.
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Better one eye than quite blind.
Retaining part of an ability or benefit can be preferable to losing it altogether. The comparison argues for a remaining good when a complete one is unavailable.
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Better pay the butcher than the doctor.
The saying prefers paying for meat to paying a doctor. It gives food provision priority through a contrast with the expense of illness.
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Better to be a tiger for a day than a sheep for a thousand years.
One day as a tiger preferred to a thousand years as a sheep favours a brief bold life over prolonged submissiveness in its animal imagery. The saying makes intensity outweigh duration.
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Better to be poor and healthy rather than rich and sick.
The saying prefers poverty with health to wealth with sickness. It ranks well-being above material possessions in its comparison.
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Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
Death on one’s feet preferred to life on one’s knees gives resistance an extreme dignity image. The saying rejects submission through bodily posture.
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Better to wear out than rust out.
The saying prefers wearing out to rusting out. It values use or engagement over remaining unused.
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Between true friends, even water drunk together is sweet enough.
The saying makes even plain water sweet enough between true friends. It values shared connection over an elaborate occasion.
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Bitter is sweet to hungry men.
A strong need can make something previously unappealing seem welcome. Bitter turning sweet pictures a change in appreciation rather than in the thing itself.
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Bread and cheese is good to eat when cannot get another meat!
Bread and cheese accepted when other food is unavailable give a simpler option an image of meeting an immediate need. The source wording contains an incomplete phrase.
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Bread never falls but on its buttered side.
The saying makes falling bread land on its buttered side. It gives an inconvenient result the appearance of a recurring rule.
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Burn not your candle at both ends at once.
Do not use your energy so intensely that little remains for rest and recovery. Too many demands at once can make a busy period difficult to sustain.
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Business is the salt of life.
Purposeful activity can give life interest and structure, as salt adds flavour. Here business can be read as having something to do, without making paid employment the only valuable activity or treating constant busyness as a virtue.
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Change of fortune is the lot of life.
Circumstances and outcomes can change over time. Avoid treating either present success or present difficulty as a permanent description of what your life must be.
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Change of pasture makes fat calves.
A change of surroundings or routine can bring renewed growth. The pasture image suggests that staying in one place is not always best, without promising that every change will improve things.
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Cheerfulness smooths the road of life.
The saying makes cheerfulness smooth life’s road. It suggests that a positive mood can make some difficulties feel easier to face.
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Cheese it is a peevish elf, It digests all things but itself.
The rhyme personifies cheese as a troublesome elf that digests everything except itself. Its comic contradiction presents the food as having a power it does not extend to its own substance.
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Children and chickens must be always picking.
The saying pictures children and chickens continually picking at food. It groups two images of repeated small feeding into a broad claim of need.
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