A hot May makes a fat churchyard.
Meaning: Warm spring weather accelerates disease spread, increasing mortality among the vulnerable and elderly.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Better one's house too little one day, than too big all the year round. — Living modestly within means costs less in upkeep than maintaining a home beyond one's fi…
- It is all one a hundred years hence. — Mortality makes present troubles insignificant; time erases all distinctions between impo…
- Hungry men think the cook lazy. — Impatient people blame external circumstances rather than acknowledging their own unreali…
- Bitter is sweet to hungry men. — Hunger transforms even unpalatable sustenance into something desirable when survival is a…
- Idle folk have the least leisure. — Procrastinators squander time worrying about undone tasks, leaving themselves perpetually…
- Idleness is the key of beggary. — Lack of effort and activity inevitably leads to poverty and dependence on others' charity.
From our idioms
- niet op zijn mond gevallen zijn — To be outspoken and forthright; to speak one's mind without hesitation.
- tussen neus en lippen door — To say something in passing or casually, without emphasis or drawing attention to it.
- blijven zitten — To be held back a grade in school; to fail to advance to the next level of study.