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Proverb   /prˈɑvərb/   Listen
noun
Proverb  n.  
1.
An old and common saying; a phrase which is often repeated; especially, a sentence which briefly and forcibly expresses some practical truth, or the result of experience and observation; a maxim; a saw; an adage.
2.
A striking or paradoxical assertion; an obscure saying; an enigma; a parable. "His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb."
3.
A familiar illustration; a subject of contemptuous reference. "Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by word, among all nations."
4.
A drama exemplifying a proverb.
Book of Proverbs, a canonical book of the Old Testament, containing a great variety of wise maxims.
Synonyms: Maxim; aphorism; apothegm; adage; saw.


verb
Proverb  v. t.  
1.
To name in, or as, a proverb. (R.) "Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool?"
2.
To provide with a proverb. (R.) "I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase."


Proverb  v. i.  To write or utter proverbs. (R.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Proverb" Quotes from Famous Books



... that which I have already mentioned. Well says the proverb, that we ought to repeat twice and even thrice that ...
— Philebus • Plato
... The proverb that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," has been almost totally ignored in its relation to the laws which govern health. It seems quite as essential, however, to examine into the cause of disease as it is to seek for remedies which, in many instances, can work but ...
— Minnesota; Its Character and Climate • Ledyard Bill
... is a long one, says the proverb, and night came with the craft still miles away, but the sky was brilliantly clear, and the moon shone forth, showing the white-sailed schooner in a strangely weird fashion ...
— The Black Bar • George Manville Fenn
... the Brahmin's books that is in the Brahmin's heart. Neither you nor I knew there was so much evil in the world. —Hindu Proverb. ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... more seriousness than hitherto. The rifle firing ended, the hilarity lessened that afternoon. In the old times the keel-boatmen bound west started out singing. The pack-train men of the fur trade went shouting and shooting, and the confident hilarity of the Santa Fe wagon caravans was a proverb. But now, here in the great Oregon train, matters were quite otherwise. There were women and children along. An unsmiling gravity marked them all. When the dusky velvet of the prairie night settled on almost the last day of the rendezvous it brought a general feeling of ...
— The Covered Wagon • Emerson Hough


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