What do you think is meant by each of the following proverbs?
a. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
b. As you make your bed so must you lie in it.
c. Honesty is the best policy
d. Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
e Don't put the cart before the horse.
f. Half a loaf is better than no bread.
Answers
1. It means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring. The exact origins of the phrase remain unclear, though it was recorded as early as 1659.
2. American Expressions AS YOU MAKE YOUR BED, SO YOU MUST LIE ON IT Meaning: you have to suffer the consequences of what you do.
3.there are often practical as well as moral reasons for being honest.
4. Making a mountain out of a molehill is an idiom referring to over-reactive, histrionic behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue. It seems to have come into existence in the 16th century.
5. A cart is a vehicle which is ordinarily pulled by a horse, so to put the cart before the horse is an analogy for doing things in the wrong order. ... The figure of speech means doing things the wrong way round or with the wrong emphasis. The idiom is about confusing cause and effect.
6. Something is better than nothing, even if it is less than one wanted. For example, He had asked for a new trumpet but got a used one—oh well, half a loaf is better than none. This expression, often shortened, was already a proverb in 1546, where it was explicitly put: “For better is half a loaf than no bread.”