Word Meanings - PROVERB - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. An old and common saying; a phrase which is often repeated; especially, a sentence which briefly and forcibly expresses some practical truth, or the result of experience and observation; a maxim; a saw; an adage. Chaucer. Bacon. 2. A striking

Additional info about word: PROVERB

1. An old and common saying; a phrase which is often repeated; especially, a sentence which briefly and forcibly expresses some practical truth, or the result of experience and observation; a maxim; a saw; an adage. Chaucer. Bacon. 2. A striking or paradoxical assertion; an obscure saying; an enigma; a parable. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. John xvi. 29. 3. A familiar illustration; a subject of contemptuous reference. Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by word, among all nations. Deut. xxviii. 37. 4. A drama exemplifying a proverb. Book of Proverbs, a canonical book of the Old Testament, containing a great variety of wise maxims. Syn. -- Maxim; aphorism; apothegm; adage; saw.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of PROVERB)

• Adage
• Maxim
• saying
• motto
• saw
• apothegm
• aphorism
• byword
• proverb
• dictum
• Aphorism
• maxim
• precept
• rule
• Apothegm
• Proverb
• adage
• axiom
• Saying
• Assertion
• declaration
• speech

Related words: (words related to PROVERB)

• PROVERBIAL
  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. Sir
• SAYING
  That which is said; a declaration; a statement, especially a proverbial one; an aphorism; a proverb. Many are the sayings of the wise, In ancient and in modern books enrolled. Milton. Syn. -- Declaration; speech; adage; maxim; aphorism; apothegm;
• SAYMAN
  One who assays.
• SPEECHLESS
  1. Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech. 2. Not speaking for a time; dumb; mute; silent. Speechless with wonder, and half dead with fear. Addison. -- Speech"less*ly, adv. -- Speech"less*ness, n.
• MOTTO
  A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievment. 2. A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding
• PRECEPTIAL
  Preceptive. would give preceptial medicine to rage. Shak.
• SPEECHIFYING
  The dinner and speechifying . . . at the opening of the annual season for the buckhounds. M. Arnold.
• SPEECHFUL
  Full of speech or words; voluble; loquacious.
• ADAGE
  An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a proverb. Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' the adage. Shak. Syn. -- Axiom; maxim; aphorism; proverb; saying; saw; apothegm. See Axiom.
• PRECEPTRESS
  A woman who is the principal of a school; a female teacher.
• SPEECHIFY
  To make a speech; to harangue.
• BYWORD
  1. A common saying; a proverb; a saying that has a general currency. I knew a wise man that had it for a byword. Bacon. 2. The object of a contemptuous saying. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen. Ps. xliv. 14
• APOTHEGMATIZE
  To utter apothegms, or short and sententious sayings.
• MAXIMIZATION
  The act or process of increasing to the highest degree. Bentham.
• PROVERB
  1. An old and common saying; a phrase which is often repeated; especially, a sentence which briefly and forcibly expresses some practical truth, or the result of experience and observation; a maxim; a saw; an adage. Chaucer. Bacon. 2. A striking
• PROVERBIALIST
  One who makes much use of proverbs in speech or writing; one who composes, collects, or studies proverbs.
• MAXIMIZE
  To increase to the highest degree. Bentham.
• PRECEPTOR
  1. One who gives commands, or makes rules; specifically, the master or principal of a school; a teacher; an instructor. 2. The head of a preceptory among the Knights Templars. Sir W. Scott.
• PRECEPTIVE
  Containing or giving precepts; of the nature of precepts; didactic; as, the preceptive parts of the Scriptures. The lesson given us here is preceptive to us. L'Estrange.
• APHORISMER
  A dealer in aphorisms. Milton.
• SOUTHSAY
  See SOOTHSAY
• VISAYAN
  A member of the most numerous of the native races of the Philippines, occupying the Visayan Islands and the northern coast Mindanao; also, their language. The Visayans possessed a native culture and alphabet.
• UNDERSAY
  To say by way of derogation or contradiction. Spenser.
• ASSAY POUND
  A small standard weight used in assaying bullion, etc., sometimes equaling 0.5 gram, but varying with the assayer.
• ESSAYER
  One who essays. Addison.
• GAINSAY
  To contradict; to deny; to controvert; to dispute; to forbid. I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Luke xxi. 15. The just gods gainsay That any drop thou borrow'dst from thy mother,
• AGAINSAY
  To gainsay. Wyclif.
• MISSAY
  1. To say wrongly. 2. To speak evil of; to slander.
• ESSAY
  A composition treating of any particular subject; -- usually shorter and less methodical than a formal, finished treatise; as, an essay on the life and writings of Homer; an essay on fossils, or on commerce. 3. An assay. See Assay, n.
• SELF-ASSERTION
  The act of asserting one's self, or one's own rights or claims; the quality of being self-asserting.
• GAINSAYER
  One who gainsays, contradicts, or denies. "To convince the gainsayers." Tit. i. 9.