Begging is an ill trade on a fast-day.
Meaning: Alms-giving diminishes on religious fast-days when even the charitable are themselves abstaining and impoverished.
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 Challenge
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- The bird that can sing and will not sing, must be made to sing. — Talent unused is wasted potential; those capable of contributing must be compelled to ful…
- Who so blind as he that will not see? — Willful ignorance is the most complete blindness; refusing truth is worse than lacking it.
- Whether you boil snow or pound it, you will have but water from it. — Effort cannot change the fundamental nature of something inherently worthless or insignif…
- It is easy to bowl down hill. — Gravity assists destructive momentum, making harm effortless once negative forces align.
- A bribe will enter without knocking. — Corruption bypasses all legitimate barriers and procedures that protect institutions from…
From our compliments & insults
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
- Courir sur le haricot — To get badly on someone's nerves.
- Tienes menos luces que un barco pirata — You're really not the brightest.