List of the illustrated proverbs in Flemish Proverbs

 

1. She ties the devil to a cushion.

2. A pillar of the church.

3. She hold water in one hand and fire in the other.

4. Bleeding the pig.

5. He grills herring for the roe.

6. Here the herring is not grilled.

7. He has cake on his face (He has no luck).

8. He is seated (or fallen) in the ash between two chairs.

9. To find the dog in the pantry.

10. Under the sign of the scissors. (Here a customer is shaved).

11. Always chewing the same bone.

12. Counting your chickens before they are hatched.

13. Belling the cat.

14. Beat one’s head against the wall.

15. Soldier or peasant?

16. Outside pretty colors, in the shit...

17. One shears sheep, the other swine.

18. Patient as a lamb.

19. One takes up the bedpost that the other leaves behind.

20. Take care that a black dog doesn’t arrive. (Watch to make sure your business does not go south).

21. He carries light in a basket during the day.

22. Light the devil’s candle.

23. Confess to the devil.

24. He who whispers in ears.

25. The fox and the heron dine together.

26. Meat on a spit must be basted. (It is necessary to care for things you wish to be successful).

27. The meat must be put on the spit while the fire is burning.

28. You can’t turn the spit with him around.

29. Seated in hot coals.

30. Two dogs rarely share the same bone happily.

31. He cuts the pig’s belly. (He takes the fun out of life); The pig bleeds from the wound. (It is undoable).

32. Throwing roses to the pigs.

33. She dresses her husband in a blue coat. (She is unfaithful to him).

34. It went like pliers on a pig.

35. When the calf is drowned you fill in the well.

36. One must labor to cross the earth.

37. He turns the world on his thumb.

38. Put a fake beard on God. (To be a hypocrite).

39. They pull for the longest.

40. To put sticks in their wheels.

41. He who spills his soup cannot pick it all back up.

42. He looks for the hatchet. (He searches for pretexts).

43. He who seeks finds.

44. A scraper without a handle. (A useless object or person).

45. He can barely grasp two loaves at the same time.

46. He yawns in front of the oven, or he who wants to yawn more than an oven must yawn a long time.

47. He is basking in his own light.

48. One doesn’t look in the oven for somebody unless one has already been in the oven.

49. She takes the hen’s egg but leaves the goose’s.

50. To fall across the basket.

51. To be suspended between heaven and Earth.

52. Its good to cut your belt from somebody else’s leather.

53. To hold an eel by the tail.

54. To swim upstream.

55. To throw one’s pants in the nettles.

56. A cracked wall is soon a ruin.

57. He cannot bear for the sun to shine on water.

58. To throw money into the well.

59. They shit from the same hole.

60. Its hung like a cupboard above a hole.

61. Big fish eat little fish.

62. Fishing inside of the net.

63. To rub one’s backside on the door. (To not care).

64. He falls (or jumps) from the cow onto the ass.

65. He plays on the pillory.

66. To shave the madman without soap.

67. They are two heads under the same hat.

68. He has a toothache behind his ears. (He is clever).

69. To piss at the moon.

70. Under the sign of the chamber pot.

71. It depends on the card.

72. Madmen are dealt the best cards.

73. He hates the world.

74. They have each other by the nose.

75. He looks between his fingers.

76. To be in his shoes. (To wait in vain).

77. Decorate with the broom. (To celebrate in the absence of supervisors).

78. They were married under the broom. Flirting under the same roof is very convenient.

79. Where the roofs are covered in pies.

80. Shoot one arrow after another. One shouldn’t shoot all of ones arrows.

81. To leave an egg in the nest.

82. When the gate is left open the pigs run in the wheat. Less wheat, but more ham.

83. To hold one’s coat out in the wind.

84. He sorts feathers in the wind.

85. He watches the stork.

86. He catches flies. He kills two flies with one blow.

87. He burns down his house to warm himself by the coals.

88. A good soldier is not afraid of fire.

89. There is no smoke without a fire.

90. She had a fire under her backside.

91. When one blindman leads another, both fall in the ditch.

92. The old run from anguish.

93. Horse droppings are not faces.

94. He watches the bears dance. (He is hungry).

95. For some reason, geese go bare-foot.

96. I was made to keep neither geese nor goslings.

97. He shits on the gallows.

98. To keep an eye on the sail.

99. It is good to go where the wind blows you.

100. The trip is not over when you see the church and the belltower.