He giveth one knock on the hoop, and another on the barrel.
Meaning: Inconsistent effort—striking at two separate tasks prevents mastery or completion of either.
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
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- A hot May makes a fat churchyard. — Warm spring weather accelerates disease spread, increasing mortality among the vulnerable…
- 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…
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From our tongue twisters
- 八百标兵奔北坡，炮兵并排北边跑。(Bābǎi biāobīng bēn běipō, pàobīng bìngpái běibian pǎo.) — A pure b-versus-p drill, separating Mandarin's unaspirated b from its aspirated p.
- O peito do pé de Pedro é preto. — Five 'p' words in a row, with the vowels shifting underneath each one.
- A aranha arranha a rã. A rã arranha a aranha. — Contrasts the soft single r of aranha against the hard rolled rr of arranha — one letter…