ProverbChallengeEnglish origin

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.

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