The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (595 page)

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WANTON kittens make sober cats
1732
Gnomologia
no. 5415
Wanton [frolicsome] Kitlins may make sober old Cats.
1832
Scottish Proverbs
97
Wanton kittens make douce [sedate] cats.
1855
Hand-Book of Proverbs
551
Wanton kittens may make sober cats.
1975
Women in Wall
I
.
I was fleshy .. in my youth. Carnal. But wanton kittens make sober cats.
youth
warling
(one who is despised or disliked): see
BETTER be an old man's darling, than a young man's slave
.
One does not WASH one's dirty linen in public
It is unwise to publicize private disputes or scandals. The saying is very often used in the metaphorical phrase to
wash one's dirty linen in public
. Cf. Fr.
c'est en famille
,
ce n'est pas en publique
,
qu'on lave son linge sale
, one washes one's dirty linen amongst the family, not in public.
1809
Pills
45
The man has always had a great itch for scribbling, and has mostly been so fortunate as to procure somebody who pitied, his ignorance, to ‘wash his dirty linen.’
1867
Last Chronicle of Barset
II. xliv.
I do not like to trouble you with my private affairs;—there is nothing .. so bad as washing one's dirty linen in public.
1886
How to be Happy thought Married
i.
Married people .. should remember the proverb about the home-washing of soiled linen.
1942
Danger point
xlviii.
The case .. will be dropped… There's nothing to be gained by washing a lot of dirty linen in public.
1980
Neapolitan Steak
199
Her look raked him from head to toe. ‘One does not wash one's Dirty Linen in Public, Commissario.’
discretion

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