Both Uses of
proverb
in
The Idiot
- It so happened that Prince S— introduced a distant relation of his own into the Epanchin family—one Evgenie Pavlovitch, a young officer of about twenty-eight years of age, whose conquests among the ladies in Moscow had been proverbial.†
Chpt 2.1 *
- Certainly Fortune favoured him, for, apart from the interesting malady of which he was cured in Switzerland (can there be a cure for idiocy?) his story proves the truth of the Russian proverb that 'happiness is the right of certain classes!'†
Chpt 2.8proverb = a well-known, short saying that is thought to communicate wisdom
Definitions:
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(1)
(proverb as in: the well-known proverb) a short saying -- typically well-known and accepted by many as offering good adviceThe adjective, proverbial, may refer to a proverb or to anything that is well-known -- as in "It is a proverbial fish story exaggeration."
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(2)
(Proverbs as in: from The Book of Proverbs) a work of wisdom literature found in both the Old Testament of the Christian Bible and the Hebrew Bible