94 Fun Facts About Finish the Phrase

Finish the phrase: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the ___"

The saying is usually traced to medieval falconry, where a trained bird on the glove was worth far more than any prey still loose in the undergrowth.

Finish the phrase: "A leopard cannot change its ___"

It comes from the Book of Jeremiah, which asks whether the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his markings.

Finish the phrase: "A penny saved is a penny ___"

It is often credited to Benjamin Franklin, though his Poor Richard's Almanack actually printed a slightly different wording.

Finish the phrase: "A rolling stone gathers no ___"

The proverb gave the world's most durable rock band its name, by way of a Muddy Waters song.

Finish the phrase: "A watched pot never ___"

Benjamin Franklin used a version of it in 1785, and it is a favourite of physicists explaining the quantum Zeno effect.

Finish the phrase: "Absence makes the heart grow ___"

The line appears in a 1602 poem, and its exact opposite, out of sight, out of mind, is an equally old proverb.

Finish the phrase: "An apple a day keeps the ___ away"

The Welsh original from the 1860s was less catchy: eat an apple on going to bed, and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread.

Finish the phrase: "Beauty is in the eye of the ___"

The exact wording is credited to Irish novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in 1878, though Shakespeare had said much the same in Love's Labour's Lost.

Finish the phrase: "Beggars cannot be ___"

It appears in John Heywood's 1546 collection of English proverbs, one of the earliest books of its kind.

Finish the phrase: "Blood is thicker than ___"

A medieval German version says kin-blood is not spoiled by water, which one scholar read as meaning family bonds survive baptism.

Finish the phrase: "Cleanliness is next to ___"

It is not in the Bible, despite what many assume; the wording comes from a 1778 sermon by John Wesley, founder of Methodism.

Finish the phrase: "Discretion is the better part of ___"

Falstaff says a version of it in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, to justify playing dead on the battlefield.

Finish the phrase: "Every cloud has a silver ___"

The image comes from John Milton's 1634 masque Comus, which describes a cloud turning out its silver lining on the night.

Finish the phrase: "Familiarity breeds ___"

Aesop's fable of the fox and the lion makes the same point: the fox is terrified at first sight, then chats to the lion by the third meeting.

Finish the phrase: "Fortune favours the ___"

The Latin form, audentes fortuna iuvat, appears in Virgil's Aeneid and is the motto of several military units.

Finish the phrase: "Honesty is the best ___"

The line is usually credited to Sir Edwin Sandys, an English politician writing around 1599.

Finish the phrase: "It takes two to ___"

The phrase was coined by a 1952 song made famous by Pearl Bailey, and Ronald Reagan later used it about US-Soviet relations.

Finish the phrase: "Look before you ___"

It shows up in the same 1546 Heywood collection as many English proverbs, and is often paired with its opposite, he who hesitates is lost.

Finish the phrase: "Many hands make light ___"

Its cynical cousin, too many cooks spoil the broth, argues exactly the reverse, which is why proverbs never settle an argument.

Finish the phrase: "Necessity is the mother of ___"

The idea goes back to Plato's Republic, where need is called the creator of things.

Finish the phrase: "No man is an ___"

It opens a famous passage from a 1624 meditation by the poet John Donne, which also gave Hemingway the title For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Finish the phrase: "People who live in glass houses should not throw ___"

Chaucer had a version in the 1380s, and George Herbert recorded a near-modern form in 1651.

Finish the phrase: "Out of sight, out of ___"

It was already a proverb in the 1200s, and it is the exact opposite of absence makes the heart grow fonder, so pick whichever suits your mood.

Finish the phrase: "Strike while the iron is ___"

It comes straight from the blacksmith's forge, where iron can only be shaped in the moments after it leaves the fire.

Finish the phrase: "The pen is mightier than the ___"

In that exact wording it dates only to 1839, in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's play about Cardinal Richelieu, the man who also gave us the phrase the dark and stormy night.

Finish the phrase: "The squeaky wheel gets the ___"

An American proverb sometimes traced to a poem by Josh Billings, and its opposite is a Japanese saying that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.

Finish the phrase: "Too many cooks spoil the ___"

It has been recorded in English since at least 1575, and almost every language has its own version about the same kitchen.

Finish the phrase: "When in Rome, do as the ___ do"

The advice is credited to Saint Ambrose in the fourth century, who told Augustine to follow local custom about fasting on Saturdays.

Finish the phrase: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the ___"

The Roman poet Ovid wrote that the harvest is always richer in another man's field, two thousand years before anyone had a suburban lawn.

Before curiosity, which word was said to have killed the cat in the proverb?

The answer is Care: Ben Jonson and Shakespeare both used care killed the cat, with care meaning worry; curiosity only replaced it in the 1800s.

"Bite the bullet" is said to come from patients clenching a bullet in their teeth during what?

Surgery without anaesthetic is the usual story, a patient clenching a bullet to bear the pain; Rudyard Kipling used the phrase in 1891, and it now means facing something unpleasant with courage.

"Break a leg" is used to wish someone good luck in which setting?

The theatre is where it is said: actors consider a direct wish of good luck a jinx, so the superstition demands wishing the opposite.

"Cold turkey" refers to giving up a substance in what way?

Abruptly is the answer: quitting cold turkey means stopping all at once, and the goose bumps and clammy skin of sudden withdrawal are said to resemble a plucked, refrigerated turkey.

Which of Aesop's fables gives us the expression for pretending to despise something you cannot have?

The Fox and the Grapes is the fable: unable to reach the fruit, the fox declares it must be sour anyway, which gave English the phrase sour grapes.

A "Pyrrhic victory" takes its name from Pyrrhus, king of which ancient realm?

Epirus is right: after beating Rome's army at Asculum in 279 BC, Pyrrhus reportedly said that one more such victory would utterly undo him.

The term "Catch-22" was coined by which author in his 1961 novel of the same name?

Joseph Heller wrote it: in the book a pilot can be grounded for insanity only by asking, and asking proves he is sane; Heller's working title was Catch-18.

"Once in a blue moon" most commonly refers to a second full moon within what period?

A calendar month is the usual meaning: a second full moon in one month happens roughly every two and a half years, which is why once in a blue moon means rarely but not never.

Damocles sat beneath a blade hanging by a hair at the court of Dionysius I, ruler of which city?

Syracuse is right: the story, told by Cicero in his Tusculan Disputations, is a lesson that great power comes with constant peril, and the phrase now means any looming threat.

"Crossing the Rubicon" means doing what?

Passing the point of no return is the meaning: Julius Caesar led his army across the small river in 49 BC, an act of treason that started a civil war.

"Devil's advocate" was originally an official position in which institution?

The Catholic Church created the office, formally the Promoter of the Faith, in 1587 and effectively abolished it in 1983, after which the number of new saints rose sharply.

'To steal someone's thunder' arose when John Dennis's thunder machine was used uncredited in which Shakespeare play?

Macbeth is the play: Dennis's own tragedy Appius and Virginia had flopped in 1709, so hearing his thunder effect rumble through a rival production is said to have provoked the outburst.

"To turn a blind eye" is often associated with which naval commander at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801?

Horatio Nelson is the commander: ordered to withdraw by signal flag at Copenhagen, he reportedly raised his telescope to his blind eye and declared he saw no signal.

A "white elephant" gets its name from sacred animals kept by monarchs in which part of the world?

Southeast Asia is right: in Siam and Burma a king could reportedly ruin a courtier by gifting him a sacred white elephant, which could not be worked or sold yet had to be lavishly kept.

"Salad days", a phrase coined by Shakespeare, refers to a period of what?

Carefree youth is the meaning: Cleopatra uses it in Antony and Cleopatra to dismiss her younger self, her salad days when she was green in judgment.

Since Shakespeare's "green-eyed monster", the colour green has been linked with which emotion?

Jealousy is the emotion: in Othello, Iago warns, O beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

A "rule of thumb" is what kind of method?

An approximate, experience-based one is what a rule of thumb is: the story that it refers to a law about wife-beating is a myth; it more likely comes from craftsmen measuring with a thumb.

In an argument or mystery, what is a "red herring"?

A misleading distraction is the meaning: the story goes that the strong-smelling smoked fish was dragged across a trail to throw hounds off the scent.

Which Greek myth gives us the phrase for a gift that hides an attack?

The Trojan Horse is the myth: Greek soldiers hid inside the wooden horse the Trojans wheeled into their city, which is also why malicious software disguised as something useful is called a Trojan.

The phrase "by and large" comes from the vocabulary of which trade?

Sailing gave us by and large: a ship sailing by was heading close to the wind, while sailing large ran with it, so a vessel that handled well by and large did so on every course.

Which word finishes the phrase "Better late than ___"?

The answer is never: better late than never has been in English since Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, where the Canon's Yeoman says that better than never is late.

Which word finishes the phrase "All that glitters is not ___"?

Shakespeare used a version, 'All that glisters is not gold', in The Merchant of Venice.

Which word finishes the phrase "Make hay while the sun ___"?

The answer is shines: a farming image, cut and dry your hay while the sun shines because rain will spoil it, so seize opportunities while they last.

Which word finishes the phrase "The early bird catches the ___"?

The answer is worm: the early bird catches the worm has been an English proverb since the 17th century, a reminder that whoever starts first gets the reward.

Which word finishes the phrase "Empty vessels make the most ___"?

The answer is noise: the saying compares the loud clang of a hollow, empty pot to people who talk the most while knowing the least.

Which food completes 'Let them eat ___', a remark pinned on Marie Antoinette that Rousseau wrote in her childhood?

The cake of the English phrase was brioche in Rousseau's Confessions, credited only to 'a great princess'. He wrote it while Marie Antoinette was still a child who had not yet seen France.

Which word completes Benjamin Franklin's 1789 line that nothing is certain 'except death and ___'?

Death and taxes were already a pair by then: the earliest known version is in Christopher Bullock's The Cobbler of Preston (1716). Franklin was writing about whether the new US Constitution would endure.

Which word completes 'Pandora's ___', a phrase traced to Erasmus mistranslating the Greek for a large storage jar?

The box was a pithos, a large jar, in the original Greek. Erasmus wrote pyxis instead in his proverb collection of 1508, and the smaller container stuck.

Which word completes 'If it ain't broke, don't ___ it', spread in 1977 by Jimmy Carter's budget director?

The advice to fix only what is broken was quoted from Bert Lance in the May 1977 issue of Nation's Business. He resigned that September in a scandal, so the motto outlasted his job.

Which word completes Theodore Roosevelt's 'Speak softly and carry a big ___', which he called a West African proverb?

The big stick gave Roosevelt's diplomacy its name. He credited the saying to West Africa, yet there is little evidence that it began there.

Which word completes 'survival of the ___', coined by Herbert Spencer in 1864 and only later adopted by Charles Darwin?

The fittest entered the language through Spencer's Principles of Biology, written after he read Darwin. Darwin took the phrase up in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species, at Alfred Russel Wallace's suggestion.

Which word completes 'Don't count your chickens before they ___', first recorded in English by Thomas Howell in 1570?

The warning not to count chicks before they hatch fits the old fable of the milkmaid, who daydreams about the poultry her pail of milk will buy and then spills the lot.

Which word completes 'Veni, vidi, ___', Julius Caesar's boast after the Battle of Zela in 47 BC?

Vici, 'I conquered', ended the report Caesar is said to have sent home after his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus. Suetonius says he also displayed the phrase as an inscription in his triumph.

Which word ends Hamlet's 'To be, or not to be, that is the ___', which the 1603 first quarto gave as 'point'?

The question comes in Act 3, in what is known as the nunnery scene. The short First Quarto of 1603, lost until a copy turned up in 1823, has Hamlet say 'Ay, there's the point' instead.

Which word completes Thomas Jefferson's 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of ___', where John Locke had 'estate'?

Jefferson's happiness sits where John Locke's 1689 trio of 'life, liberty, and estate' ended. Several colonial declarations of the 1770s had listed life, liberty and property instead.

Which word completes 'crocodile ___', a phrase for false grief found in a proverb collection attributed to Plutarch?

Crocodile tears are real: the animals weep to lubricate their eyes after a long spell on land. The ancients believed they cried over the victims they were eating.

Which word completes 'Achilles' ___', the weakness left where Thetis gripped her son to dip him in the Styx?

Achilles' heel stayed dry under his mother's thumb and forefinger, so only there could he be hurt. In the best-known telling, an arrow shot by Paris found it.

Which word completes 'a camel through the eye of a ___', the Gospel image for a rich man's chances of entering heaven?

The needle image also appears in the Qur'an, where the arrogant will not enter Paradise until a camel passes through one. In the Gospels it follows a rich young man's question about how to gain eternal life.

Which word completes 'carpe ___', from Horace's Odes of 23 BC, where the verb really means to pluck ripe fruit?

Carpe diem is usually translated 'seize the day', but carpe is a gardener's verb, so 'pluck the day' is closer. Horace was telling his reader to enjoy the moment while it is ripe.

Which word completes 'Birds of a feather ___ together', first known in English from a 1545 satire by William Turner?

Like has been said to flock to like since antiquity. Benjamin Jowett's translation of Plato's Republic even has men of one age call themselves birds of a feather, though the Greek mentions no birds.

Which word completes 'It ain't over till the fat lady ___', first printed in 1976 quoting a Texas Tech sports official?

The lady who sings is generally understood to be an opera soprano, and cartoons tend to show Wagner's valkyrie Brünnhilde. Ralph Carpenter's 1976 wording was 'the opera ain't over'.

Which word completes 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single ___', from chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching?

The single step is a loose translation: the Chinese says a journey of a thousand li starts beneath one's feet. The line is ascribed to Laozi, yet it is often wrongly credited to Confucius.

Which word completes 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of ___', Benjamin Franklin's 1735 advice on house fires?

The pound of cure Franklin meant was firefighting: in an anonymous letter to his own Pennsylvania Gazette he warned Philadelphians against carrying live coals from room to room on a shovel.

Which word completes 'turn the other ___', the Sermon on the Mount's reply to 'an eye for an eye'?

Matthew names the right cheek, and scholars see a reason: a right-handed attacker can strike it only with the back of the hand, the more insulting blow in that culture.

Which month completes 'Beware the ides of ___', the soothsayer's warning in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?

The ides of March fell on the 15th, the day Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Plutarch says he teased the seer that the day had come, and was told it had not yet gone.

Which word completes 'The road to hell is paved with good ___', a proverb often misattributed to Bernard of Clairvaux?

Good intentions were 'meanings and wishes' when John Ray printed an early form of the saying in 1670. Virgil had made a kindred point long before: the descent to hell is easy.

Which word completes 'Don't throw the baby out with the ___', a German saying first printed by Thomas Murner in 1512?

The bathwater saying came with a picture: Murner's satire Appeal to Fools has a woodcut of a woman tossing out the baby as well. Thomas Carlyle carried the German image into English in an 1849 essay.

Which word completes 'the writing on the ___', from the Book of Daniel's tale of a hand at Belshazzar's feast?

The wall bore a verdict that only Daniel could read: God had numbered the king's days, weighed him and found him wanting. Belshazzar's kingdom went to the Medes and the Persians.

Which word completes 'There's no such thing as a free ___', which Milton Friedman adapted as the title of a 1975 book?

The free lunch was real: from about 1870 American saloons served a meal to anyone who bought a drink, counting on most customers to buy more than one.

Which word completes 'Cogito, ergo ___', the first principle that René Descartes originally published in French in 1637?

Cogito, ergo sum first reached readers as 'je pense, donc je suis', because Descartes wanted a wider audience than Latin allowed. The Latin wording came later, in his Principles of Philosophy.

Which word completes Abraham Lincoln's 1858 line 'A house divided against itself cannot ___', borrowed from the Gospels?

Lincoln's 'cannot stand' echoes Mark 3:25, where Jesus says the same of a divided house. The speech opened his Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas, which he lost while gaining national fame.

Which word completes 'Brevity is the soul of ___', spoken in Hamlet by the long-winded royal counsellor Polonius?

The line about wit is a joke at the speaker's expense: Polonius, counsellor to King Claudius, rambles so much that Hamlet dismisses him as a tedious old fool.

Which word completes 'E pluribus ___', the motto on the Great Seal of the United States approved by Congress in 1782?

E pluribus unum means 'out of many, one', and its thirteen letters suit the thirteen founding colonies. Readers of the day knew it from the title page of London's Gentleman's Magazine.

Which word completes Robert Burns's 'The best-laid schemes o' ___ an' men', the line that gave John Steinbeck a title?

The mice were real: legend has Burns wreck a nest with his plough in November 1785, and his brother said he composed the poem still holding it. Steinbeck's first title was Something That Happened.

Which word completes 'All the world's a ___', the opening of Jaques's seven ages of man speech in As You Like It?

The stage metaphor was already old: Shakespeare's Globe, founded in 1599, may have used a Latin motto meaning 'all the world plays the actor', taken from a 12th-century treatise.

Which word completes 'In vino ___', a Latin saying about drinkers alluded to in Pliny the Elder's Natural History?

In vino veritas, 'in wine, there is truth', holds that drinkers let slip what they really think. The Greeks said it first: their version is traced back to a poem by Alcaeus.

Which word completes 'Now is the winter of our ___', the Richard III opening that named Britain's strikes of 1978–79?

Discontent became the label for a British winter in which unions struck for pay rises above the limits set by James Callaghan's Labour government. Richard speaks the line alone, straight to the audience.

Which monster completes 'between Scylla and ___', a classical phrase for two dangers in the Strait of Messina?

Charybdis was the whirlpool off Sicily, facing six-headed Scylla on the Calabrian side. Homer has Odysseus advised to pass close to Scylla and lose a few of his crew instead of the whole ship.

Which word completes 'Form follows ___', the maxim Louis Sullivan coined in an 1896 article on tall office buildings?

Function was Sullivan's watchword, yet he later credited the core idea to the ancient architect Vitruvius, who held that a building must be solid, useful and beautiful.

Which word completes 'The medium is the ___', Marshall McLuhan's title for the first chapter of Understanding Media?

The message turned into a 'massage' on a later book: The Medium Is the Massage was meant to repeat the phrase, but McLuhan preferred the new title, said to have begun as a printing error.

Which word completes Portia's 'The quality of mercy is not ___', her plea to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice?

Strained opens the speech in which Portia, disguised as a lawyer, begs Shylock to spare Antonio. One scholar hears Deuteronomy in its next image, of mercy dropping like gentle rain.

Which puppet completes 'pleased as ___', a phrase from a British seaside show first recorded in England in 1662?

Punch descends from Pulcinella, a stock character of Neapolitan comedy whose name was anglicised as Punchinello. Samuel Pepys watched an early version of him in Covent Garden.

Which word completes 'Once more unto the ___, dear friends', spoken by Shakespeare's Henry V at the siege of Harfleur?

The breach is at Harfleur, the French port Henry besieges after crossing the Channel. His army has been beaten back at first, and the speech drives it on to a hard-won victory.

Which word completes 'a wolf in sheep's ___', an image from the Sermon on the Mount often wrongly credited to Aesop?

Sheep's clothing is how Matthew's Gospel pictures false prophets who are ravening wolves inside. The first fable of a disguised wolf came only in the 12th century, from the Greek writer Nikephoros Basilakis.

Which word completes 'cutting the Gordian ___', from Alexander the Great's shortcut at Gordium in 333 BC?

The knot tied an ox-cart to a post, and an oracle promised wide dominion to whoever undid it. Alexander simply cut through it, though one ancient account says he pulled out a linchpin instead.