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Take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves; Talk is cheap; Talk of the Devil, and he is bound to appear; Talk of Angels, and hear the flutter of their wings; Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are [26] Tell the truth and shame the Devil (Shakespeare, Henry IV) The age of miracles is past
The law does not care about the smallest things. A court does not care about small, trivial things. A case must have some importance in order for a court to hear it. See "de minimis non curat praetor". Also used as an adjective: "The court found that the alleged conduct was de minimis." de minimis non curat praetor
i.e., "do not argue what is obviously/manifestly incorrect." advocatus diaboli: Devil's advocate: Someone who, in the face of a specific argument, voices an argument that he does not necessarily accept, for the sake of argument and discovering the truth by testing the opponent's argument. cf. arguendo. aegri somnia: a sick man's dreams
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
From the poem by Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Not long for this world [1] Will die soon; have little time left to live Old-fashioned Not with us anymore Dead Euphemistic: Off on a boat [5] To die Euphemistic: Viking Off the hooks [2] Dead Informal British. Not to be confused with 'off the hook' (no longer in trouble).
Another idiom of improbability is 畑に蛤 (Hata ni hamaguri) which means "finding clams in a field". Latin – ad kalendas graecas ("to the Greek Kalends") signified indefinite postponement, since the Greek calendar had no Calends period; also cum mula peperit = "when a mule foaled".
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This is a list of idioms that were recognizable to literate people in the late-19th century, and have become unfamiliar since. As the article list of idioms in the English language notes, a list of idioms can be useful, since the meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced by knowing the meaning of its constituent words. See that article for a fuller ...