The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (52 page)
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BIRDS of a feather flock together
People of the same (usually, unscrupulous) character associate with one another, as do birds of the same species. Cf. Ecclesiasticus xxvii. 9 (AV) The birds will resort unto their like, so will truth return unto them that practise in her.
1545
Rescuing of Romish Fox
B8
Byrdes of on kynde and color flok and flye allwayes together.
1599
Spanish Grammar
83
Birdes of a feather will flocke together.
1660
Nonsuch Professor
81
Our English Proverb .. That birds of a feather will flock together. To be too intimate with sinners, is to intimate that you are sinners.
1828
Pelham
III. xv.
It is literally true in the systematised roguery of London, that ‘birds of a feather flock together.’
1974
Child in Forest
14
Birds of a feather flock together, and in our village the few feckless .. tended to live at one end; the prim .. and prosperous at the other.
1983
‘’
Sleepers of Erin
xviii.
Maybe it really was the one that had been parked next to Michael Fenner's grand posh Rover outside his bookseller's place …Well, birds of a feather and all that.
associates
;
human nature
;
similarity and dissimilarity
1545Rescuing of Romish Fox
B8
Byrdes of on kynde and color flok and flye allwayes together.
1599
Spanish Grammar
83
Birdes of a feather will flocke together.
1660
Nonsuch Professor
81
Our English Proverb .. That birds of a feather will flock together. To be too intimate with sinners, is to intimate that you are sinners.
1828
Pelham
III. xv.
It is literally true in the systematised roguery of London, that ‘birds of a feather flock together.’
1974
Child in Forest
14
Birds of a feather flock together, and in our village the few feckless .. tended to live at one end; the prim .. and prosperous at the other.
1983
‘’
Sleepers of Erin
xviii.
Maybe it really was the one that had been parked next to Michael Fenner's grand posh Rover outside his bookseller's place …Well, birds of a feather and all that.
associates;
human nature
;
similarity and dissimilarity
Little BIRDS that
can
sing and
won't
sing must be
made
to sing
can
sing and
won't
sing must be
made
to sing
1678English Proverbs
(ed. 2) 343
The bird that can sing and will not sing must be made to sing.
1846
Cricket on Hearth
ii.
‘The bird that can sing and won't sing, must be made to sing, they say,’ grumbled Tackleton. ‘What about the owl that can't sing, and oughtn't to sing, and will sing?’
1888
Troy Town
i.
‘A little music might perhaps leave a pleasant taste.’..‘Come, Sophy! Remember the proverb about little birds that can sing and won't sing?’
1904
Napoleon of Notting Hill
II. i.
When the disdainful oligarchs declined to join in the songs of the men of the Broadway …, the great Republican leader, with his rough humour, said the words which are written in gold upon his monument, ‘Little birds that can sing and won't sing, must be made to sing.’
1952
Little Benders
18
Heaven wasn't so far away when you could do your own singing about it. Mama believed that and many a time she said, ‘A body who can sing and won't sing ought to be made to sing.’
obstinacy;
speech and silence
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