All 6 Uses of
proverb
in
War and Peace
- "La balance y est...* A German knows how to skin a flint, as the proverb says," remarked Shinshin, moving his pipe to the other side of his mouth and winking at the count.†
Chpt 1proverb = a well-known, short saying that is thought to communicate wisdom
- *Do you know the proverb?†
Chpt 1 *
- 'One man though undone is but one,' as the proverb says, but with thirteen in your family and all the property...They've brought us to utter ruin!†
Chpt 10
- Dans le doute, mon cher," he paused, "abstiens-toi" *(2)—he articulated the French proverb deliberately.†
Chpt 10
- And above all," thought Prince Andrew, "one believes in him because he's Russian, despite the novel by Genlis and the French proverbs, and because his voice shook when he said: 'What they have brought us to!' and had a sob in it when he said he would 'make them eat horseflesh!'†
Chpt 10
- The proverbs, of which his talk was full, were for the most part not the coarse and indecent saws soldiers employ, but those folk sayings which taken without a context seem so insignificant, but when used appositely suddenly acquire a significance of profound wisdom.†
Chpt 12 *
Definitions:
-
(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."
-
(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