Part 6
Gie't about, it will come to my faither at last.
Gie the deil his due, and ye'll gang to him.
Gie ye a use, and ye'll ca't a custom.
Gie ye meat, drink, and claes, and ye'll beg among your friends.
Applied to unreasonable people, who get everything they want, and still are not satisfied.
Gie your heart to God, and your alms to the poor.
From the remarkable paucity of proverbs relating to religion in the older collections, we infer that this saying is Henderson's own, as it only appears in his collection.
Gie your tongue mair holidays than your head.
Girn when you knit, and laugh when you louse.
Meaning, that while enforcing discipline we should do so with firmness, and relax it freely when occasion requires.
Glasgow for bells, Lithgow for wells, Falkirk for beans and pease.
Glasgow people, Greenock folk, and Paisley bodies.
"These words imply gradations of dignity, the Paisley bodies being (how far deservedly would admit of much question) at the bottom of the scale. Some years ago, when a public dinner was given to Professor Wilson, of Edinburgh, in Paisley, which is his native place, on his speaking of it as a town containing such and such a number of souls, his friend, Thomas Campbell, who sat by his side, whispered, 'Bodies, you mean.'"--_Robert Chambers._
Glasses and lasses are brittle ware.
Glib i' the tongue is aye glaiket at the heart.
A smooth tongue betokens a deceitful heart.
Glowering is nae gainsaying.
Glum folk's no easily guided.
"Glum" or morose people are difficult to manage.
God be wi' the gude Laird o' Balmaghie, for he ne'er took mair frae a poor man than a' that he had.
God comes wi' leaden feet, but strikes wi' iron hands.
God helps them that help themselves.
God help the rich, for the poor can beg.
God help you to a hutch, for ye'll never get a mailing.
Spoken of an incompetent person, that he may succeed in making a bare living, for his abilities will never secure him a fortune.
God keep ill gear out o' my hands; for if my hands ance get it, my heart winna part wi't,--sae prayed the gude Earl of Eglinton.
God keep the cat out o' our gate, for the hens canna flee.
God ne'er measures men by inches.
God ne'er sent the mouth, but he sent the meat wi't.
God's aye kind to fu' folk and bairns.
As instanced by the marvellous manner in which men escape injury while under the influence of drink.
God sends fools fortunes.
God sends meat and the deil sends cooks.
God sends men claith as they hae cauld.
God send us siller, for they're little thought o' that want it.
God send water to that well that folk think will ne'er be dry.
"Spoken when our poor kin and followers are always asking of us; as if we should never be exhausted."--_Kelly._
God send ye mair sense, and me mair siller.
God send ye readier meat than running hares.
God send ye the warld you bode, and that's neither scant nor want.
God shapes the back for the burden.
God's help is nearer than the fair e'en.
Gold's gude, but it may be dear bought.
Go to Hecklebirnie.
"This term is used in a strange sort of imprecation. If one say, 'Go to the d----l!' the other often replies, 'Go you to Hecklebirnie!' which is said to be a place three miles beyond hell!"--_Jamieson._
Graceless meat maks folk fat.
Grass grows nae green in the common road.
Gratitude preserves auld friendships and begets new.
Great barkers are nae biters.
Great pains and little gains soon mak a man weary.
Great tochers makna aye the greatest testaments.
Great winning maks wark easy.
Greed is envy's auldest brither: scraggy wark they mak thegither.
Greedy folk hae lang arms.
Gree, like tykes and swine.
Greening wives are aye greedy.
Grey-eyed, greedy; brown-eyed, needy; black-eyed, never blin', till it shame a' its kin.
Gude advice is never out o' season.
Gude ale needs nae wisp.
"A wisp of straw stuck upon the top of a country house is a sign that ale is to be sold there; but if the ale be good, people will haunt the house though there be none."--_Kelly._
Gude bairns are eith to lear.
Gude bairns get broken brows.
For they are as liable to injury as bad ones.
Gude be wi' auld langsyne, when our gutchers ate the trenchers.
Gude breeding and siller mak our sons gentlemen.
Gude cheer and cheap gars mony haunt the house.
Gude claes open a' doors.
Gude counsel is abune a' price.
Gude-enough has got a wife and Far-better wants.
Gude folk are scarce, tak care o' me.
Gude foresight furthers wark.
Gude gear gangs into little bouk.
Gude gear's no to be gaped at.
Gude health is better than wealth.
Gude kail is half meat.
Gude night, and joy be wi' you a'.
Gude reason and part cause.
Signifying that a person has _both_ good reason and cause to complain.
Gude to fetch sorrow to a sick wife.
Gude! ye're common to kiss your kimmer.
Gude wares may come frae an ill market.
Gude wares mak a quick market.
Gude watch hinders harm.
Gudewill ne'er wants time to show itsel.
Gudewill should be ta'en in part payment.
Gude wit jumps.
Gude words cost naething.
Guessed work's best if weel done.
"Gulp!" quo' the wife when she swallowed her tongue.
Gunpowder is hasty eldin.
Gust your gab wi' that.
"He's no ill boden, That gusts his gab wi' oyster sauce, An' hen weel soden."--_Fergusson._
Gut nae fish till ye get them.
[Illustration]
Ha' binks are sliddry.
"Great men's favours are uncertain."--_Kelly._
Had I fish was never gude to eat mustard.
"An answer to them that say, Had I such a thing, I would do so or so."--_Kelly._
"Had I wist," quo' the fool.
Had you sic a shoe on ilka foot, you would shochel.
Or, had you my sorrows to bear, you would look equally miserable.
Hae! gars a deaf man hear.
Hae God, hae a'.
Hae, lad,--rin, lad; that maks an olite lad.
Hae you gear or hae you nane, tine heart and a' is gane.
Hain'd gear helps weel.
"Hain'd gear"--saved money--is of great assistance.
Hair by hair maks the carl's head bare.
Hale sale is gude sale.
Hale claith's afore cloutit.
Half acres bear aye gude corn.
Meaning that when people have but little property, they take good care of it.
Half a tale is enough for a wise man.
Hallowe'en bairns see far.
"And touching the bairn, it's weel kent she was born on Hallowe'en was nine years gane, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see mair than ither folk."--_The Monastery._
Hame's a hamely word.
"Hame's hamely," quo' the deil when he found himsel in the Court o' Session.
Hand in gear helps weel.
Hand in use is father o' lear.
The constant practice of our profession is the surest road to "lear" or affluence.
Handle your tools without mittens.
Hand ower head, as men took the covenant.
"Alluding to the manner in which the covenant, so famous in Scottish history, was violently taken by above sixty thousand persons about Edinburgh, in 1638; a novel circumstance at that time, though afterwards paralleled by the French, in voting by _acclamation_."--_Fielding._
Handsome is that handsome does.
Hang a thief when he's young, and he'll no steal when he's auld.
Hang him that has nae shift, and hang him that has ower mony.
Hang hunger and drown drouth.
Hanging gaes by hap.
Hanging's nae better than it's ca'd.
Hanging's sair on the eesight.
Hankering an' hinging-on is a poor trade.
Hands aff is fair play.
Hap an' a ha'penny is world's gear enough.
Happiness and moderate means in this world are enough.
Happy for the son when the dad gaes to the deil.
"For commonly they who first raise great estates, do it either by usury and extortion, by fraud and cozening, or by flattery, and by ministering to other men's vices."--_Ray._
"Alas for the son whose father goes to heaven!"--_Portuguese._
Happy is the bride that the sun shines on; happy is the corpse that the rain rains on.
Happy is the wooing that's no lang o' doing.
Happy man be his dool.
A good wish,--that happiness may be the greatest affliction sent him.
Happy man, happy kavel.
Happy the man that belongs to nae party, but sits in his ain house, and looks at Benarty.
"Sir Michael Malcolm, of Loch Ore, an eccentric baronet, pronounced this oracular couplet in his old age, when troubled with the talk of the French Revolution. As a picture of meditative serenity and neutrality, it seems worthy of preservation."--_Robert Chambers._
Happy's the maid that's married to a mitherless son.
Hard fare maks hungry bellies.
Hardships seldom come single.
Haste and anger hinder gude counsel.
Haste maks waste, and waste maks want, and want maks strife between the gudeman and the gudewife.
Hasty meet, hasty part.
"An observation upon marriage suddenly contracted, as if it were ominous, and portended a sudden separation."--_Kelly._
Hasty was hanged, but Speed-o'-foot wan awa.
Haud the hank in your ain hand.
Do the difficult part of your work yourself, or retain every advantage you can.
Haud your feet, Lucky Dad, auld folk's no fiery.
Literally, look to your feet, as you are not nimble: applied when people stumble.
Haud you hand, your father slew a whaup.
Haud your hands aff ither folk's bairns till ye get some o' your ain.
Hawks winna pike out hawks' een.
"It was an unco thing to see hawks pike out hawks' een, or ae kindly Scot cheat anither."--_Rob Roy._
Hearken to the hinder-end, after comes not yet.
Hearts may 'gree though heads may differ.
He begs frae them that borrowed frae him.
He bides as fast as a cat does to a saucer.
Meaning that a person will "bide" or stay only so long as he can get anything, or serve his own purpose.
He blaws in his lug fu' brawly.
"Blaw his lug," to praise a person in an extravagant or fulsome manner.
He blushes at it like a beggar at a bawbee.
He breeds o' the gowk that casts a' down at e'en.
He brings a staff to break his ain head.
He can do ill, and he may do gude.
He can haud the cat and play wi' the kitten.
He can ill rin that canna gang.
He can lee like a dog licking a dish.
He canna see an inch before his nose.
He can say "My Jo," and think it no.
That is, he can be complimentary in his speech, but not in his intentions.
He can suck the laverock's frae the lift.
"In relation to one who possesses great power of wheedling. It evidently alludes to the idea of the fascinating power of serpents by means of their breath."--_Jamieson._
He can wile the flounders out o' the sea.
"'Heard ye ever the like o' that, laird?' said Saddletree to Dumbiedikes, when the counsel had ended his speech. 'There's a chiel can spin a muckle pirn out o' a wee tait o' tow!... And he's cleckit this great muckle bird out o' this wee egg! He could wile the very flounders out o' the Firth.'"--_Heart of Midlothian._
He caresna wha's bairns greet if his ain laugh.
He ca's me scabbed because I winna ca' him sca'd.
Meaning that a man has endeavoured to make his opponent in a
## particular transaction lose his temper, but failing to do so, he
loses his own.
"Hech!" quo' Howie, when he swallowed his wife's clue.
"Hech!" is here used as an expression of surprise and relief that a disagreeable operation has been performed. A "clue" is a ball of worsted.
He comes oftener wi' the rake than the shool.
"Spoken of a poor friend whose business is not to give us, but to get from us."--_Kelly._
He comes o' gude, he canna be ill.
A satirical expression applied to persons who are vain enough to suppose that they can do no wrong.
He complains early that complains o' his parritch.
He counts his ha'penny gude siller.
Meaning that a person may confer a very small favour, and have a greatly exaggerated idea of his own generosity.
He cuts near the wood.
To "cut near the wood" is to be very keen in driving a bargain.
He daurna say "Bo" to your blanket.
He doesna aye ride when he saddles his horse.
He doesna ken a B frae a bull's foot.
A saying denoting that a person is extremely ignorant.
He doesna ken what end o' him's upmost.
He doesna like his wark that says "Now!" when it's done.
He doubles his gift that gies in time.
He eats the calf i' the cow's wame.
Which means, in other words, he has spent his fortune before he received it; that "He has eaten his corn in the blade."--_French._
Heedna says, or ye'll ne'er sit at ease.
He fells twa dogs wi' ae bane.
"Pate disna fend on that alane; He can fell twa dogs wi' ae bane, While ither folk Must rest themselves content wi' ane, Nor farer trock."--_Fergusson._
He flings the helve after the hatchet.
He fyles his neighbour's cog to get the brose himsel.
Meaning that a person has been wicked enough to injure the character of another that he might supplant him in influence or position.
He gaed for oo' but came hame shorn.
"A camel going to seek horns lost his ears."--_Arabic._
He gangs awa in an ill time that ne'er comes back again.
He gangs far aboot seeking the nearest.
He gangs frae the jilt to the gellock.
To "jilt," to throw or dash water on a person; "gellock" (gavelock), an iron lever or crowbar. Meaning, perhaps, that a man's temper is such that he passes from the extreme of playfulness to that of passion very quickly.
He gangs lang barefoot that waits for dead men's shune.
He gaes nae whitings without banes.
Or, if he confers an obligation, it is sure to have some condition attached to it.
He girns like a sheep's head in a pair o' tangs.
"Little Andrew, the wratch, has been makin' a totum wi' his faither's ae razor; an' the pair man's trying to shave himsel yonder, an' girnan like a sheep's head on the tangs."--_Hugh Miller._
He got his mother's malison the day he was married.
Spoken of a man who has a bad wife.
He had gude skill o' horse flesh wha bought a goose to ride on.
He harps aye on ae string.
He has a bee in his bonnet-lug.
Applied when a person is very much occupied with a project of his own.
He has a cauld coal to blaw at.
"A' things o' religion hae settled into a method that gies the patronless preacher but little chance o' a kirk. Wi' your oye's ordinar looks, I fear, though he were to grow as learned as Matthew Henry himsel, he would hae but a cauld coal to blaw at."--_Sir Andrew Wylie._
He has a crap for a' corn.
He has a gude judgment that doesna lippen to his ain.
He has a hearty hand for a hungry meltith.
He bestows charity liberally.
He has a hole beneath his nose that winna let his back be rough.
Meaning that his extravagance in the matter of food is such that it prevents his back being "rough" or well clothed.
He has a lang clue to wind.
"I might hae been in a state and condition to look at Miss Girzy; but, ye ken, I hae a lang clue to wind before I maun think o' playing the ba' wi' Fortune, in ettling so far aboun my reach."--_The Entail._
He has an ill look among lambs.
He has a saw for a' sairs.
That is, a salve or "balm for every wound."
He has a slid grip that has an eel by the tail.
"Spoken to those who have to do with cunning fellows whom you can hardly bind sure enough."--_Kelly._
He has been rowed in his mother's sark tail.
Synonymous with being "tied to his mother's apron-string," _i.e._, kept too strictly under parental authority.
He has brought his pack to a braw market.
He has come to gude by misguiding.
He has coosten his cloak on the ither shouther.
He has coup'd the muckle pat into the little.
Sarcastically applied to those who claim to have executed extraordinary deeds.
He has drowned the miller.
Meaning that in mixing liquids, as in mixing toddy, too much water has been added. The English say, "He has put the miller's eye out."
He has faut o' a wife that marries mam's pet.
He has feathered his nest, he may flee when he likes.
He has gane without taking his leave.
He has gi'en up a trade and ta'en to stravaigin'.
A humorous way of expressing that a man has retired from business to live comfortably. To "stravaig" is to walk about idly.
He has got a bite o' his ain bridle.
He has gotten his kail through the reek.
"To meet with severe reprehension. To meet with what causes bitterness or thorough repentance as to any course that one has taken."--_Jamieson._
He has gotten the boot and the better beast.
This saying has evidently emanated from the stable. When persons wish to exchange horses, he who has the poorest animal gives a "boot" or compensation in addition to the horse, to make the exchange equal. The proverb is applied to a person who has over-reached his neighbour.
He has gotten the whip hand o' him.
He has got the heavy end of him.
Meaning that in an argument or struggle he has the best of it.
He has help'd me out o' a deadlift.
Or rendered very great assistance in an emergency.
He has hit the nail on the head.
He has it o' kind, he coft it not.
Meaning that a person's bad qualities are inherited from his parents; equivalent to the saying, "What's bred in the bone won't out of the flesh."
He has left the key in the cat-hole.
He has licket the butter aff my bread.
To "lick the butter," in proverbial phraseology, is to supplant a person in business, or so interfere with his arrangements as to injure them.
He has made a moonlight flitting.
To "shoot the moon," as the English say, is to decamp from a house without paying the rent.
He has mair floor than he has flail for.
Or more work than he can overtake.
He has mair jaw than judgment.
He has mair wit in his wee finger than ye hae in your hale bouk.
He has muckle prayer, but little devotion.
He hasna a bauchle to swear by.
He hasna a hail nail to claw him wi'.
He hasna as muckle sense as a cow could haud in her faulded nieve.
He has nae clag till his tail.
"A vulgar phrase, signifying that there is no stain on one's character, or that no one can justly exhibit a charge against him."--_Jamieson._
He has nae mair mense than a miller's horse.
_Vide_, "As menseless as a tinkler's messan."
He has naething to crave at my hand.
He has need o' a clean pow that ca's his neighbour nitty now.
"A man ought to be free of those faults that he throws up to others."--_Kelly._
He has neither stock nor brock.
He has neither money nor meat.
He has ower many greedy gleds o' his ain.
Meaning that a man has too many family claims upon his generosity to meet, to be able to attend to those of strangers.
He has skill o' roasted woo--when it stinks it's ready.
He has some sma' wit, but a fool has the guiding o't.
He has soon done that never dought.
He has spur metal in him.
He has swallowed a flee.
He has ta'en the country on his back.
A proverbial expression of the fact that a man has run away.
He hastit to his end like a moth to a candle.
He has the best end o' the string.
He has the gift o' the gab.
"'I wish,' said Dumbiedikes, 'I were as young and as supple as you, and had the gift o' the gab as weel.'"--_Heart of Midlothian._
He has wit at will that wi' an angry heart can sit still.
He hauds baith heft and blade.
That is, he has a thing entirely at his own option.
He hearsna at that ear.
He hears wi' his heels, as the geese do in hairst.
"That is, he heard, had he been pleased to answer."--_Kelly._
He hid a bodle and thought it a hoard.
He hides his meat and seeks for mair.
"Spoken when covetous people pretend poverty, and conceal their wealth to plead pity."--_Kelly._
He is not a merchant bare, that hath either money, worth, or ware.
"A good merchant may want ready money."--_Kelly._
He jump'd at it, like a cock at a grossart.
"'I had quite forgotten,' said Tyrrel, 'that the inn was your own; though I remember you were a considerable landed proprietor.' 'Maybe I am,' replied Meg, 'maybe I am not; and if I be, what for no? But as to what the laird, whose grandfather was my father's landlord, said to the new doings yonder--he just jumped at the ready penny, like a cock at a grossart.'"--_St Ronan's Well._
He keeps his road weel enough wha gets rid o' ill company.
He kens a'thing that opens and steeks.
He kens his ain groats amang other folk's kail.
He kens how many beans mak five.
He kens how to butter a whiting.
The import of the two preceding sayings is, that a man is very sharp in looking after his own interests.
He kens how to turn his ain cake.
"'Never fash your beard, Mr Bide-the-Bent,' replied Girder; 'ane canna get their breath out between wives and ministers. I ken best how to turn my own cake. Jean, serve up the dinner, and nae mair about it.'"--_Bride of Lammermoor._
He kens muckle wha kens when to speak, but far mair wha kens when to haud his tongue.
He kens nae a mavis frae a madge-howlet.
He kens nae a selgh frae a salmon.
He kens nae the pleasures of plenty wha ne'er felt the pains o' poverty.
He kens whilk side his bannock's buttered on.
"There was a set of ancient brethren of the angle from Edinburgh, who visited St Ronan's frequently in the spring and summer, a class of guests peculiarly acceptable to Meg, who permitted them more latitude in her premises than she was known to allow to any other body. 'They were,' said she, 'pawky auld carles, that kend whilk side their bread was buttered upon.'"--_St Ronan's Well._
He kicks at the benweed.
_Benweed_, ragwort. That is, he is headstrong, or unreasonable.
He lay in his scabbard, as mony a gude sword's done.
Meaning that he prudently allowed an insult or slight to pass without notice.
He left his siller in his ither pocket.
A sarcastic allusion to those who seek to evade paying their share of the reckoning. It was remarked of a friend of ours, that on such occasions he "was the first to put his hand in his pocket, but the last to draw it out."
He likes nae beef that grows on my banes.
He'll claw up their mittans.
Metaphorically, "He will kill them, or give the finishing stroke."--_Jamieson._
He'll either win the horse or tine the saddle.
He'll gang mad on a horse wha's proud on a pownie.
Spoken of those who take undue advantage of the slight authority they possess.
He'll gang nae farther than his tether's length.
He'll gang to hell for house profit.
He'll get the poor man's answer, "No."