Words worth understanding
Start with the thought in plain English. Then examine its imagery, practical application and limitations.
2,058 selected entries have editorial explanations. An explanation is not independent authentication of an attribution. Start with the individually source-checked classics ↗
proverb · Traditional
The saying pictures a reluctant person resisting both bedtime and getting up. Opposite transitions are delayed, so the pattern concerns unwillingness to move into the next activity.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Something once pleasant can become especially unpleasant when it changes. Sweet wine becoming sharp vinegar pictures a striking reversal.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A later change can remove what an earlier change supplied. The ebb and returning tide picture a temporary gain that may not stay in place.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Patience can help a person reach an opportunity or goal that takes time. The expansive promise praises waiting wisely, without guaranteeing success or suggesting that passive delay is always better than timely action.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
New growth can draw on resources supplied by an older source. The tree image invites attention to dependence without making younger people a burden by nature.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A favourable opportunity may need action while its conditions last. The high tide pictures a moment when progress is easier than it will be later.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying urges action by contrasting present life with the stillness of death. Its exaggeration should not be used to deny the need for rest.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Understanding changing circumstances can require sustained observation. The world’s pulse pictures a pattern that cannot be judged from a single instant.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A much-discussed future occasion eventually becomes the present one. The saying notices how anticipation and repeated conversation accompany the passage of time, without suggesting that talking makes an event happen or that every expected event will arrive.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Work done during an available season can help provide for a harder one. The contrast between heat and frost stresses timing but oversimplifies why needs may go unmet.
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
Time and changing conditions continue whether or not you are ready. Some opportunities require acting within a real window instead of expecting the world to pause.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Even an intense grief may change with time. The saying offers hope for easing, while its sweeping claim should not impose an outcome or deadline.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Experience over time can temper youthful confidence. The rider image presents youth as being trained, but needs limits on its assumption that age must subdue people.
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
Different actions and experiences belong to different moments. The saying encourages attention to timing instead of expecting every purpose to be served at once.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying permits courtship for younger men while condemning it for older men. A critical reading questions age as a substitute for assessing consent and conduct.
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
Promises made in a crisis can be forgotten once the pressure passes. Storm and calm contrast the urgency that prompts a vow with the ease that tests its durability.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Regret cannot restore an opportunity or resource after it has been used up. The saying warns about waiting until the consequences are complete, while leaving room for repair, support or a different next step where those remain possible.
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 ↗