The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (209 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
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FULL cup, steady hand
Used especially to caution against spoiling a comfortable or otherwise enviable situation by careless action.
c
1025
Durham Proverbs
(1956) 15
Swa fulre fæt swa hit mann sceal fægror beran [the more full the cup, the more carefully must one carry it].
c
1325
Proverbs of Hending
in
Anglia
(1881) IV. 293
When the coppe is follest, thenne ber hire feyrest.
1721
Scottish Proverbs
346
When the Cup's full carry it even. When you have arrived at Power and Wealth, take a care of Insolence, Pride, and Oppression.
1732
Gnomologia
no. 122
A full Cup must be carried steadily.
1889
in
Monthly Packet
Christmas 46
Poor things! They were so happy—so open-hearted. I did long to caution them. ‘Full cup, steady hand.’
1903
Master's Questions
xxi
I would listen .. to this question .. whenever .. I am eagerly reaching out my hands to grasp what may satisfy an unlikely ambition. All hands are not steady enough to carry a full cup.
good fortune
;
prudence
It's ill speaking between a FULL man and a fasting
A hungry man is never on good terms with a well-fed man; in quot. 1824, used as an incitation to eat.
a
1641
Scottish Proverbs
(STS) no. 1349
Thair is nothing betuix a bursten body and a hungered.
1824
Redgauntlet
I. xi.
Ye maun eat and drink, Steenie .. for we do little else here, and it's ill speaking between a fou man and a fasting.
1934
Free Fishers
ii.
It's ill speaking between a full man and a fasting, but two fasting men are worse at a crack.
hunger
;
quarrelsomeness
Out of the FULLNESS of the heart the mouth speaks
With allusion to
MATTHEW
xii. 34 (AV) Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
c
1390
Parson's Tale
l. 626
After the habundance of the herte speketh the mouth ful ofte.
1699
Fruits of Divine Meditation
in
Works
(1751) II. 26
Out of the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh.
1861
Framley Parsonage
II. x.
As out of the full head the mouth speaks, so is the full heart more prone to speak at such periods of confidence as these.
1932
‘’
Hand-Print Mystery
ii.
The murder .. had been in the background of her mind all the time. ‘Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh.’
speech and silence

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