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Proverbial   /prəvˈərbiəl/   Listen
adjective
Proverbial  adj.  
1.
Mentioned or comprised in a proverb; used as a proverb; hence, commonly known; as, a proverbial expression; his meanness was proverbial. "In case of excesses, I take the German proverbial cure, by a hair of the same beast, to be the worst."
2.
Of or pertaining to proverbs; resembling a proverb. "A proverbial obscurity."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Proverbial" Quotes from Famous Books



... the proverbial pin drop as Field's organ-like voice, which all quickly recognized, rolled out the now familiar lines of "Dibdin's Ghost," then heard for the first time by everyone in that historic Corner. No point was missed in that weird recitation. I shall never forget the graveyard ...
— Eugene Field, A Study In Heredity And Contradictions - Vol. I • Slason Thompson
... were grouped in a corner of the apartment, where they were carrying on a very animated dialogue, the two oldest of the party (a male and a female) being the principal speakers. It was not to be expected that even a graduate of Oxford, although belonging to a sect so proverbial for classical lore that many of them knew nothing else, could at the first hearing decide upon the analogies and character of a tongue that is so little cultivated even in that ancient sea of learning. ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper
... too, upon the absurdities of the world. Fashion could not supply the place of reason, if reason were not absent; and most irrational and unaccountable indeed are all her ladyship's ways. Her capriciousness is proverbial, and her agency is generally illustrated by comparison with the most unsteady elements of the physical world. We say "Fashion that fluctuating lady," alluding to the ebbing and flowing of the tide—and "Fashion that weathercock," ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor - Volume I, Number 1 • Stephen Cullen Carpenter
... o'clock before he reached the palace gates. It seemed to him that they had deterred his progress for some unknown purpose, and the thought of those he had left behind caused him profound uneasiness. Native treachery was proverbial, and no doubt Nehal Singh felt himself justified in any conduct that seemed wise to him. In any case, there was no return. The crowd in front of Nicholson sank back like a receding tide as he rode through the open gates and then closed in behind, following in one dense stream as ...
— The Native Born - or, The Rajah's People • I. A. R. Wylie
... approached us was a thing I have never seen equalled. The independence of American children is proverbial; but democratic institutions never produced anything more saucily self-reliant than this little Briton. Without looking at us, or deigning any apology for the great gate,—which, it seems, is a mere barricade, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864 • Various


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