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LACKING breeds laziness, but praise breeds pith.
"Discommend a boy, and you discourage him; but commend him, and it will spur him on."- Kelly.
Lads will be men.
Laith to bed, laith oot o't.
Laith to drink, laith frae't.
Meaning that although some people are slow or "laith" to begin a thing, still, when they do commence, it is difficult to get them to leave off.
Lang and sma', gude for naething ava.
Jocularly applied to those who are tall and of "genteel" build.
Langest at the fire soonest finds cauld
Lang fasting gathers wind.
Lang fasting hams nae meat.
Lang leal, lang poor.
Lang lean maks hamald cattle.
That is, poorly kept cattle makes homely, domestic., or common meat.
Lang look'd for come at last.
Lang mint, little dint.
"Much ado about nothing."
Lang noses are aye taking till them.
Lang or ye saddle a foal.
Lang or you cut Falkland wood wi' a penknife.
Spoken when people enter into extensive undertakings without sufficient preparations or means.
Lang sick, soon weel.
Lang sport turns aft to earnest.
Lang standing and little offering maks a poor priest.
"Lang straes are nae motes," quo' the wife when she haul'd the eat out o' the kirn.
Lang tarrowing taks a' the thanks awa.
"He loses his thanks that promises, but delays."- English.
Lang-tongued wives gang lang wi' bairn.
"Applied to those who discover their projects, designs, and intentions long before they are put in execution."- Kelly.
Lasses and glasses are bruckle ware.
Lassies are like lamb-legs: they'll neither saut nor keep.
Lassies now-a-days ort nae God's creatures.
"The proverbial reflection of an old woman, as signifying that in our times young women are by no means nice in their choice of husband."-- Jamieson.
Last to bed, best heard.
Laugh and lay't down again.
Laugh at leisure, ye may greet ere night.
Laugh at your ain toom pouches.
"'The japanned tea-caddie, Hannah--the best bohea--bid Tib kindle a spark of fire--the morning's damp--draw in the giggling faces of ye, ye d--d idle scoundrels, or laugh at your ain toom pouches--it will be lang or your weel-doing fill them.' This was spoken, as the honest lawyer himself might have said, in transitu."- St Ronan's Well.
Law licks up a'.
"The Laird has been a true friend on our unhappy occasions, and I have paid him back the siller for Effie's misfortune, whereof Mr Nichil Novit returned him no balance, as the Laird and I did expect he wad hae done. But law licks up a', as the common folk say. I have had the siller to borrow out o' sax purses."-- Heart of Midlothian.
Law-makers shouldna be law-breakers.
Law's a deadly distemper amang friends.
Law's costly: tak a pint and gree.
"How easy can the barley bree
Cement the quarrel !
It's aye the cheapest lawyer's fee,
To taste the barrel."- Burns.
Lay a thing by and it'll come o' use.
Lay the head o' the sow to the tail o' the grice.
Or place the profit against time loss.
"An' I am to lose by ye, I'se ne'er deny I hae won by ye mony a fair pund sterling--sae, an' it come to the warst, I'se e'en lay the head o' the sow to the tail o' the grice."-- Rob Roy.
Lay the sweet side o' your tongue till't.
"An answer to them that ask what they will get to their hasty pudding."-- Kelly.
Lay up like a laird, and seek like a lad.
Lay your wame to your winning.
That is, let your housekeeping expenses be in unison with your income.
Laziness is muckle worth, when it's weel guided.
Lazy youth maks lousy age.
Leal folk ne'er wanted gear
Leal heart leed never.
"A' was toom, a' heartless-like, an' bare;
Her dowie pain she culdna mair conceal--
The heart, they'll say, will never lie that's leal."
Ross's Helenore.
Lean on the brose ye got in the morning.
Spoken facetiously to a person who leans heavily on another.
Leap year was never a gude sheep year.
Learn the cat the road to the kirn, and she'll aye be lickin'.
Learn young, learn fair; learn auld, learn mair.
Learn your gudewife to mak milk kail.
That is, "Teach your grandmother to suck eggs."
Learn you an ill habit and yell ca't a custom.
Least said soonest mended.
Leave aff while the play's gude.
Leave a jest when it pleases you best.
Leave the court ere the court leave you.
Leave welcome aye behint you.
Prolong your stay only so long as you find your company approved of, so that you may not be considered tedious.
Lee for him and he'll swear for you.
Leein' rides on debt's back.
Lend your money and lose your friend.
"It is not the lending of our money that loses our friend; but the demanding of it again. and that will lose a friend to my certain knowledge. They have a proverbial rhyme to this purpose:-
'I had a and a as many of this land,
I lent my to my when he did demand,
I sought my }penny{ from my }friend{ when he had kept it long.
Let-a-be for let-a-be.
"Mutual forbearance."-- Jamieson.
Let ae deil dang anither.
An expression of indifference at two bad persons quarrelling.
Let a horse drink what he will, but no when he will.
Let alane maks mony a loon.
"Let a' trades live," quo' the wife when she burnt her besom.
Let aye the bell'd wether break the snaw.
A "bell'd wether" is a ram with a bell round its neck; and the proverb means that a difficult or dangerous undertaking should be led by a person of experience.
Let folk bode weel, and do their best.
Let him cool in the skin he het in.
Let him drink as he has brewen.
Let by-ganes be by-ganes.
"'Hout, ay,' said Elliot, 'just let by-ganes be by-ganes, and a' friends again; deil ane I bear malice at but Westburnflat, and I hae gi'en him baith a het skin and a cauld ane.'"-- The Black Dwarf.
Let him haud the bairn that's aught the bairn.
Let him ride his ain horse wi' his ain hauding.
Let him tak a spring on his ain fiddle.
Let him tak his fling, and he'll find oot his ain weight.
Let him that's cauld blaw the ingle.
Let him that pays the lawin' choose the lodging.
"'I diana ken, sir,' she replied in a dry reveche tone, which carried me back twenty years, 'I am nane of thae heartsome landleddies that can tell country cracks, and make themsells agreeable ; and I was ganging to pit on a fire for you in the red room ; but if it is your will to stay here, he that pays the lawing maun choose the lodging.'"- The Highland Widow.
Let his ain wand ding him.
Let ilka ane roose the ford as they find it.
That is, let every one speak of a thing as he finds it.
Let ilka ane soop before their ain door.
Let ilka cock fight his ain battle.
Let ilka herring hing by its ain head.
Let ilka man soop the ice wi' his ain besom.
Let ilka sheep hang by its ain shank.
Let ilka tub stand on its ain bottom.
Let na the plough stand to kill a mouse.
Do not quit or neglect an important matter to look after trifles.
Let ne'er your gear owergang ye.
Never let your wealth make you give way to pride, or forget your old friends.
Let never sorrow come sae near your heart.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
Let that flee stick to the wa'.
"'Hoot tout, man ! let that flee stick in the wa',' answered his kinsman; 'when the dirt's dry it will rub out.'"-- Rob Roy.
Let the eird bear the dike.
"Eird and dike" are earth and stone wall. The proverb means that heavy or important undertakings should have a solid basis.
Let the horns gang wi' the hide.
The horns bearing but insignificant value in comparison with the hide, they should be thrown into the purchase of the latter free of charge.
Let the kirk stand i' the kirkyaird.
That us, let everything be in its proper place.
Let them care that come behint.
Let the morn come and the meat wi't.
Let the muckle horse get the muckle windlin.
Let the tail follow the skin.
Let the tow gang wi' the bucket.
Let your meat dit your mouth.
Liars should hae gude memories.
Lick and lay down.
A proverbial form of expression of a man's being able to pay his way.
Lick your loof and lay't in mine, dry leather jigs aye.
"This signifies no more but kiss your hand and give it. Spoken facetiously upon some good fortune unexpected."- Kelly.
Lie in your bed and lippen to that.
Life's life ony gate.
"'And now we're settled ance mair,' said Cuddie to his mother, 'and if we're no sae bein and comfortable as we were up yonder, yet life's life ony gate, and we're wi' decent kirk-ganging folk o' your ain persuasion, mither ; there will be nae quarrelling about that.'"-- Old Mortality.
Light burdens break nae banes.
Light lades mak willing horses.
Lightly come, lightly gang.
Light maidens mak langing lads.
"Light's heartsome," quo' the thief to the Lammas mune.
Lightsome sangs mak merry gate.
"Ratcliffe, speaking apart to Madge, asked her 'whether she did not remember ony o' her auld sangs?' 'Mony a dainty ane,' said Madge ; 'and blithely can I sing them, for lightsome sangs make merry gate.'"- Heart of Midlothian.
Light suppers mak lang days.
Like a sow playing on a trump
"Trump," a Jew's harp. Typical of extreme awkwardness.
Like Bauldy's wedding, there's nae meat but muckle mirth.
Like blood, like gude, like age, mak the happy marriage.
Like butter in the black dog's hause.
That is, a dangerous position, as butter in the embrace of a dog certainly is.
Like Cranshaws kirk--there's as mony dogs as folk, and neither room for reel nor rock.
"In a remote pastoral region, like that of Cranshaws, lying in the midst of the Lammermoor hills, it is or was usual for shepherds' dogs to accompany their masters to the church ; and in times of severe stormy weather, few people except the shepherds, who are accustomed to be out in all weathers, could attend divine service ; and in such circumstances, it may have occurred that the dogs may have equalled in numbers the rational hearers of the Word. We have heard the saying applied by bustling servant girls to a scene where three or four dogs were lounging about a kitchen hearth, and impeding work."- G. Henderson.
Liked gear is half-bought.
"When wares please, a bargain is soon made."-- English.
Like draws aye to like, like an auld horse to a fell dike.
Persons of similar tastes draw towards and sympathize with each other. "Like will to like--a scabbed horse and a sandy dike."-- Danish. "Like will to like, as the devil Said to the coal--burner."-- German.
Like hens, ye rin aye to the heap.
Spoken jocularly to those who help themselves to what there is most of on the table.
Like Hilton kirk, baith narrow and mirk, and can only haud its ain parish folk.
"Hilton kirk was a very small edifice in Berwickshire, and it would seem from the saying not very well lighted. When any number of strangers came as hearers, the accommodation was deficient; the saying is used when many persons assemble in a small house, and there is little room to stir about."-- G. Henderson.
Like Lamington's mare, ye break brawly aff, but stifle set up.
Likely lies i' the mire, and unlikely gets ower.
Meaning that many undertakings which promise favourably at first often fail; while those of which no great hopes are entertained are successfully carried through.
Like maister, like man ; like priest, like offering.
Like Moses' breeks, neither shape, form, nor fashion.
Like Orkney butter, neither gude to eat nor creesh woo.
"A minister having in these words compared the covenant, made it a proverb. Applied to a thing that is useful no way."-- Kelly.
Luke paddy's ghost, twa steps ahint.
Like's an ill mark amang ither folk's sheep.
Like the bairns o' Falkirk, they'll end ere they mend.
"This is a proverbial saying of ill-doing persons, as expressive of there being no hope of them. How the children of Falkirk came to be so characterized, it would be difficult now to ascertain. The adage has had the effect of causing the men of Falkirk jocularly to style themselves 'the bairns;' and when one of them speaks of another as 'a bairn,' he only means that that other person is a native of Falkirk."- Robert Chambers.
Like the cat, fain fish wad ye eat, but ye are laith to weet your feet.
"The cat is fain the fish to eat, but hath no will to wet her feet."-- English.
"Letting 'I dare not' waut upon 'I would,' like the poor cat i' the adage."-- Macbeth.
Like the cowts o' Bearbughty, ye're cowts till ye're best's by.
Like the cur in the crub, he'll neither do nor let do.
A Scottish version of the dog in the manger.
Like the dam o' Devon, lang gathered and soon gane.
Like the fiddler o' Chirnside's breakfast, it's a' pennyworth's thegither.
"This is said of people who buy very small quantities of any article. Fiddlers are proverbially poor, and the one of Chirnside was no exception to the rule. One morning he sent his boy for materials for breakfast, and the order was delivered to the shopkeeper in the following measured terms:-
'A pennyworth o' tea,
A pennyworth o' sugar,
Three penny loaves,
And a pennyworth o' butter;
And a pennyworth o' he herring,
For my faither likes melts!'"
G. Henderson.
Like the gudeman o' Kilpalet, ye're ower simple for this warld, and hae nae broo o' the next.
Like the laird o' Castlemilk's foals--born beauties.
Like the lassies o' Bayordie, ye learn by the lug.
Like the man o' Ampenly's coo, she's come hame routin', but no very fu', wi' the tow about her horns.
"The cow came home unsold; and the rhyme is applied to a young woman who comes home from a fair or market without a 'Jo' or sweetheart."-- G. Henderson.
Like the man wi' the sair guts--nae getting quat o't.
Like the smith's dog, sleep at the sound o' the hammer, and wauk at the crunching o' teeth.
Like the tod's whalps, aye the aulder the waur.
Like the wabster, stealing through the warld.
Another insult to the weaving profession. The reply of a person who is asked how he is getting on.
Like the wife that ne'er cries for the ladle till the pat rins o'er.
That is, never asks for an article until it is too late.
Like the wife wi' the mony dochters, the best's aye hindmost.
Or, at least, she would have the lover of the last believe so.
Like the wife's tongue, aften better meant than timed.
Like the witches o' Auchencrow, ye get mair for your ill than your gude.
"That is, people sometimes grant an individual a favour through fear of malevolence, or to get rid of his importunity."-- G. Henderson.
Like to like.
"I'll tell ye, Ratton, blithe will Nicol Muschat be to see ye, for he says he kens weel there isna sic a villain out o' hell as ye are, and he wad be ravished to hae a crack wi' ye--like to like, ye ken--it's a proverb never fails; and ye are baith a pair o' the deevil's peats, I trow--hard to ken whilk deserves the hettest corner o' his ingleside."-- Heart of Midlothian.
Like water to leather--the langer the tougher.
"Although my mither has been, pact the memory o' man, in a complaining condition, I ken nae odds o' her this many a year; her ail's like water to leather, it makes her life the tougher."- The Entail.
Lippen to me, but look to yoursel.
Lips gae, laps gae, drink and pay.
"If you put your lips to the cup to drink, put your hand to your lap to take out your purse."-- Kelly.
Listen at a hole, and ye'll hear news o' yoursel.
List to meat's gude kitchen.
Little and aften fills the purse.
Little can a lang tongue layne.
Little does the puir gude, and as little get they.
Little dogs hae lang tails.
Little folk are soon angry.
A frequent addition gives thin reason--for their heart gets soon to their mouths.
Little gear, little care.
Little Jock gets the little dish, and that hauds him lang little.
"Poor people are poorly served, which prolongs their poverty."-- Kelly.
Little kens the auld wife, as she sits by the fire, what the wind is doing on Hurley-Burley-Swire.
"Hurle-Burle-Swire is a passage through a ridge of mountains that separate Nithssdale from Twadale and Clydsdale: where the mountains are so indented one with another that there is a perpetual blowing. The meaning is that they who are at ease know little of the trouble that others are exposed to."- Kelly.
Little kent, the less cared for.
Little may an auld horse do if he maunna nicher.
Little meddling maks fair pairting.
Little mense o' the checks to bite aff the nose.
It is bad policy for a person to injure another with whom he is intimately connected, or upon whom he is depending
Little odds between a feast and a fu' wame.
Little said is soon mended, little gear is soon spended.
Little's the light will be seen far in a mirk night.
"'But the flame !' demanded Ravenswood ; 'the broad blaze which might have been seen ten miles off--what occasioned that?' 'Hoot, awa ! it's an auld saying and a true, "Little's the light will be seen far in a mirk night"--a wheen fern and horse litter that I fired in the courtyard, after sending back the loon of a footman.'"-- Bride of Lammermoor.
Little to fear when traitors are true.
Little troubles the ee, but less the soul.
Little wats the ill-willy wife what a dinner may haud in.
Although a wife be very angry and "ill-willy" with her husband in private, still in public she should be cautions for obvious reasons, one of which is, Kelly says, "That a handsome treat may secure good friends and great interest."
Little winning maks a light purse.
Little wit in the head maks muckle travel to the feet.
People of few resources, or poor imagination, are apt to be put about by trifles.
Little wit in the pow that lights the candle at the lowe.
Live in measure, and laugh at the mediciners.
Live upon love, as laverocks do on leeks.
Living at heck and manger
To live at "heck and manger" is to fare sumptuously every day, even beyond our income.
Lock your door, that you may keep your neighbours honest.
Lo'e me little an' lo'e me lang.
Look before ye loup, ye'll ken better how to light.
"Luke quhair thou licht befoir thou lowp,
And slip na certainty for howp,
Quha gyds thee but begess."-- Cherrie and the Slae.
Loud coos the doo when the hawk's no whistling; loud cheeps the mouse when the cat's no rustling.
That is, subordinates take advantage when superiors are out of the way. "When the cat's away, the mice will play."-- English.
Loud i' the loan was ne'er a gude milk cow.
Noisy people, or those who are always boasting of what they can do, are seldom so clever even as their neighbours. Kelly says this is "a reprimand to noisy girls."
Love and jealousy arc sindle sindry.
Love and lairdship's like nae marrows.
"Marrow," that is, an equal, match, or antagonist.
Love and light winna hide.
Love has nae lack, be thc dame e'er sae black.
Love has nae law.
Love is as warm amang cottars as courtiers.
"The rose blooms gay on shairney brae,
As weel's in birken shaw;
And love will lowe in cottage low,
As weel's in lofty ha'."- Tannahill.
Love ower het soon cools.
Love your friend and look to yoursel.

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