Bombastic Proverbs #4

Ten familiar proverbs are re-written into lengthy sentences utilizing large (bombastic) words. Read each and see if you can decipher the familiar proverb. The answers are at the bottom of this post.

Sample: Do not utter loud and passionate vocal expressions because of the accidental overturning of a receptacle containing a whitish, opaque, nutritive fluid.

Answer: Don’t cry over spilt milk.


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31. Everything that coruscates with effulgence is not ipso facto Aurous.


32. One must sanction slumbering canines to recline in repose undisturbed.


33. Allow one’s terminating digits of the chiral appendages to accomplish the perambulation.


34. A paltry ten mills frugally preserved from disbursement is nonetheless a like amount gainfully received for services rendered.


35. Probity is undeniably the prime and unequaled procedure.


36. Dilatory attendance transcends absentia.


37. The pastureland unfailingly assumes the guise of a more vibrant hue when in existence on the yonder aspect of of any delimiting barrier.


38. One’s visual organs ofttimes greatly exceed in ponderosity the spatial confines of the alimentary canal dilation immediately anterior to one’s esophagous.


39. Judicious foresight often allows one to terminate a duo of aviary inhabitants by the mere employment of a solitary earthly concretion.


40. Though it may prove to be within the realm of potentiality to convey an equine to aqua pura, the ingurgitation of same by compulsion or duress cannot be effected.


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Answer Key:

31. All that glitters is not gold.
32. Let sleeping dogs lie.
33. Let your fingers do the walking.
34. A penny saved is a penny earned.
35. Honesty is the best policy.
36. Better late than never.
37. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
38. Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.
39. Kill two birds with one stone.
40 You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

Bombastic Proverbs #3

Ten familiar proverbs are re-written into lengthy sentences utilizing large (bombastic) words. Read each and see if you can decipher the familiar proverb. The answers are at the bottom of this post.

Sample: Do not utter loud and passionate vocal expressions because of the accidental overturning of a receptacle containing a whitish, opaque, nutritive fluid.

Answer: Don’t cry over spilt milk.


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1. It invariably comes to pass that the more massive the individual, so much greater is the force he exerts upon impact with terra firma.


2. Lack of factual background and expertise in any given area often leads one to an emotional state of ecstasy, joy, and bliss.


3. Those members of feathered tribes who exhibit punctuality and promptitude consequently ensnare and possess the slimy, crawly creature.


4. A body of persons abiding in a domicile of silica combined with metallic oxides should not carelessly project small geological specimens.


5. An addlepated beetle head and his specie divaricate with startling prematurity.


6. It is none other than a maleficent horizontally propelled current of gaseous matter whose portentous advent is not the harbinger of a modicum of beneficence.


7. Aberration is the hallmark of Home Sapiens while longanamous placability and condonation are the indicia of super-mundane omniscience.


8. An irrepressibly inquisitive disposition eventuated the demise of the feline.


9. Labor uninterrupted by essential recreation constrains within the male progeny Jonathan a proclivity for lacklusterness.


10. Equity and justice are nonexistent in the pursuit of amorousness and bellicosity.

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Answer Key:

1. The bigger they come, the harder they fall.
2. Ignorance is bliss.
3. The early bird gets the worm.
4. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
5. A fool and his money are soon parted.
6. An ill wind blows no good.
7. To err is human, to forgive, divine.
8. Curiosity killed the cat.
9. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
10. All’s fair in love and war.

Bombastic Proverbs #2

Over three decades ago, I came upon an activity that I incorporated into the curriculum for my Advanced Reading class for college-bound juniors and seniors. Ten familiar proverbs had been re-written into lengthy sentences utilizing large words. My inclusion of the activity for my students was designed to show them 1) how NOT to write, and 2) as a vocabulary development exercise. A side benefit was teaching inference, for after defining several words in each sentence, they often could infer what the entire proverb was.

When I began the exercises, the students loved them, and related how they completed the assignment around the evening supper table with the entire family joining in and having a ball. And after we ran out of the sentences, the students sent me home with homework -- to create more of them, often using proverbs they suggested -- which I did until we had a bank of 75 proverbs to work with. Decades later, my students no longer seemed to relish the assignments anymore, because (as we determined) their parents were not using the proverbs and hence the students were unfamiliar with them.

Anyway, I came upon the handout recently as I sifted through some of my old teaching materials, and here, in my eighth year of retirement, I offer several to you for (hopefully) your enjoyment.

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Sample: Do not utter loud and passionate vocal expressions because of the accidental overturning of a receptacle containing a whitish, opaque, nutritive fluid.

Answer: Don’t cry over spilt milk.



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11. A gyrating geological specimen amasses a dearth of verdant flora.

12. That which initially advances upward apparently unendingly must in all eventualities return to the planet from which it originated its journey.
13. Any act, the completion of which is unnecessarily accelerated, invariably yields a resultant dissipation.

14. The masterful Supreme Being ofttimes endeavors to labor utilizing an enigmatic, inscrutable modus operandi.

15. It is prudent to ascertain unequivocally your locus and to predetermine and investigate the locale which is your ultimate destination prior to bounding thereto.

16. The state of emulating consummate immaculacy is an attribute in proximal juxtaposition to the Omniscient Supreme Deity.

17. Refrain from comporting oneself as either one who accrues with the implied consent or expressed intention of returning same, or as one who bestows for temporary usage on the contingency that the same or its equivalent is rebated.

18. Refrain from overzealous consumption of resources, for shunning insatiable usage will yield a plethora and ultimately preclude destitution, scarcity, and craving.

19. The utter absence of auditory stimulation is often regarded as analogous to a precious metallic element.

20. The absence of light is unfailingly the most pronounced immediately prior to the sun’s daily emergence over the eastern horizon.

ANSWERS:

11. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
12. Whatever goes up must come down.
13. Haste makes waste.
14. God works (moves) in mysterious ways.
15. Look before you leap.
16. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
17. Neither a lender nor a borrower be.
18. Waste not, want not.
19. Silence is golden.
20. It’s always darkest just before the dawn.

Bombastic Proverbs #1

Over three decades ago, I came upon an activity that I incorporated into the curriculum for my Advanced Reading class for college-bound juniors and seniors. Ten familiar proverbs had been re-written into lengthy sentences utilizing large words. My inclusion of the activity for my students was designed to show them 1) how NOT to write, and 2) as a vocabulary development exercise. A side benefit was teaching inference, for after defining several words in each sentence, they often could infer the entire proverb.

When I introduced the exercise, the students loved it, and many related how they had completed the assignment around the evening supper table with the entire family joining in and having a ball. And after we ran out of the sentences, the students sent me home with homework -- to create more of them, often using proverbs they suggested -- which I did until we had a bank of 75 proverbs to work with. Decades later, my students no longer seemed to relish the assignments anymore, because (as we determined) their parents were not using the proverbs and hence the students were unfamiliar with them.

Anyway, I came upon the handout recently as I sifted through some of my old teaching materials, and here, in my eighth year of retirement, I offer several to you for (hopefully) your enjoyment.



Sample: Do not utter loud and passionate vocal expressions because of the accidental overturning of a receptacle containing a whitish, opaque, nutritive fluid.

Answer: Don’t cry over spilt milk.




1. Compounds of Hydrogen and Oxygen, in the proportion of 2 to 1, that are without visible movement, tend to flow with profundity.
   
   
2. One should abstain from unnecessarily postponing to a future juncture that which one can effect immediately.
   
   
3. It is not advantageous to place the sum total of your backyard collection into the same wicker receptacle.
   
   
4. A superfluity of culinary experts has a tendency to disarrange the preparation of the beef extract.
   
   
5. Never calculate the possible number of your juvenile poultry until the usual period of incubation has been fully accomplished.
   
   
6. Each mass of vapory collections suspended in the firmament has an interior decoration of metallic hue.
   
   
7. The flying phenomenon of the ethereal kingdom, of a kindred kind, come into association gregariously.
   
   
8. Deviation from the ordinary humdrum of common routine of existence is that which provides zest to Man’s cycle of existence.
   
   
9. An inhabitant of an aviary recumbent in one’s chiral appendage is equivalent to a duo in the foliage.
   
   
10. 10. A baste administered within the constraints of chronology ofttimes precludes the necessity of mandating ninefold at a future juncture.

Answer key:

1. Still waters run deep.
2. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
4. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
5. Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.
6. Every cloud has a silver lining.
7. Birds of a feather flock together.
8. Variety is the spice of life.
9. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
10. A stitch in time saves nine.