The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (69 page)
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Authors: John Andrew Simpson,
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A BULLY is always a coward
>
1817
Ormond
in
Harrington & Ormond
III. xxiv.
Mrs. M' Crule, who like all other bullies was a coward, lowered her voice.
1826
Elia
in
New Monthly Magazine
XVI. 25
A Bully is always a coward … Confront one of the silent heroes with the swaggerer of real life, and his confidence in the theory quickly vanishes.
1853
Wise Saws
iv.
I never saw a man furnished with so much pleasure in my life. A brave man is sometimes a desperado. A bully is always a coward.
1981
Times
9 May 2
The old adage holds good: all bullies are cowards, and most cowards are bullies.
cowardice
1817Ormond
in
Harrington & Ormond
III. xxiv.
Mrs. M' Crule, who like all other bullies was a coward, lowered her voice.
1826
Elia
in
New Monthly Magazine
XVI. 25
A Bully is always a coward … Confront one of the silent heroes with the swaggerer of real life, and his confidence in the theory quickly vanishes.
1853
Wise Saws
iv.
I never saw a man furnished with so much pleasure in my life. A brave man is sometimes a desperado. A bully is always a coward.
1981
Times
9 May 2
The old adage holds good: all bullies are cowards, and most cowards are bullies.
cowardice
A BURNT child dreads the fire
c1250
Proverbs of Hending
in
Anglia
(1881) IV. 199
Brend child fuir fordredeth [is in dread of].
c
1400
Romaunt of Rose
1. 1820
‘For evermore gladly,’ as I rede, ‘Brent child of fier hath mych drede.’
1580
Euphues & his England
II. 92
A burnt childe dreadeth the fire … Thou mayst happely forsweare thy selfe, but thou shalt neuer delude me.
1777
Journey
I. xviii.
He then observed, that a burnt child dreads the fire;.. that a Jew had lately passed thro' France, who had put off false Bank notes, and that I might .. have taken some.
1889
Pictorial Proverbs for Little People
5
She will not touch a match or a lighted candle .. which proves that the proverb is true which says: a burnt child dreads the fire.
1948
Uncle Dynamite
II. vii.
The burnt child fears the fire, and bitter experience had taught Pongo Twistleton to view with concern the presence in his midst of Ickenham's fifth earl.
1984
Newsweek
5 Nov. 98
The burned child fears the fire and when dawn breaks next Tuesday voters may pull the covers over their ringing heads and refuse to get out of bed.
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