a day late and a dollar short »
Action that was taken too late and too feeble to be of any use.
|
a drop in the bucket »
An effort or action having very little overall influence, especially as compared to a huge problem.
|
a leopard cannot change its spots »
One cannot change one's own nature.1597, William Shakespeare, Richard II Act i, Scene 1 (First Folio):King. Lyons make Leopards tame.Mowbray. Yea but not change his ?pots.1611, King James Version of the Bible, Jeremiah 13:23:Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe Chapter 32:End now all unkindness. Let us put the Jew to ransom, since the leopard will not change his spots, and a Jew he will continue to be.1918, Johnston McCulley, Thubway Tham's Inthane Moment:The leopard cannot change his spots, old boy.
|
a life of its own »
An independent existence with some characteristics of life.
|
a man is known by the company he keeps »
People are similar in character to their friends.
|
a million times »
by a factor of a million
|
a miss is as good as a mile »
A failure remains a failure, regardless of how close to success one has actually come.
|
a picture paints a thousand words »
A visualisation is a better description than a verbal description.1971, David Gates (of Bread), If, from Manna album:If a picture paints a thousand wordsThen why can't I paint you;The words will never showThe you I've come to know.1989, Alan Kay, quoted in K?o-tung Huang, Timothy D. Huang, Introduction to Chinese, Japanese and Korean Computing, World Scientific, ISBN 9971506645, p. 9:Most human beings, no matter how familiar they are with abstract symbols, respond to voice and images better than written language. In other words, A picture paints a thousand words.2006, Paul Shakespeare, Building a Dune Buggy: The Essential Manual, ISBN 1904788734, p. 52:See accompanying diagram: a picture paints a thousand words, and all that!
|
a rolling stone gathers no moss »
A person who never settles in one place will never be successful.A person who does not keep active will grow mouldy.
|
a watched pot never boils »
A process appears to go more slowly if one waits for it rather than engaging in other activities.
|
abide by »
To accept a decision or law and act in accordance with it; to conform to; to acquiesce; as, to abide by an award.
|
abound in »
To have something in great numbers or quantities; to possess in such abundance as to be characterized by.
|
abound with »
To have something in great numbers or quantities; to possess in such abundance as to be characterized by.
|
abstract nonsense »
Details which involve diagram chasing.
|
accident of birth »
Reference to the fact that various benefits or detriments to the life of a person arise from the circumstances into which that person was born, these being entirely beyond his control.
|
| Like Phrases.net? Why won't you tell a friend about us? |
