Searching 1,789 entries, their variants, meanings, and origins
“weather”
Showing 25–28 of 28 matches
-
The calm before the storm
Origin … lull that can precede a storm and on seafaring weather-wisdom, is plausible inference rather than documentation: the earliest record is a stage line, and no primary source ties the phrase's coinage to the…
Also known as a calm before the storm · the calm before the tempest · the lull before the storm · the quiet before the storm
-
Know which way the wind blows
Origin … the mid-14th century. The often-repeated framing through weathercocks or political weather-vanes is not confirmed in the sources consulted: the documented image is the straw cast into the air and wind-reading…
Also known as know which way the wind is blowing · see which way the wind is blowing · which way the wind blows
-
Every cloud has a silver lining
Origin … England, popularized by Victorian optimism and weather metaphors. An 1840 review in 'The Spectator' magazine cemented it as a proverb. It resonated during industrial gloom and war, evolving into a widely…
-
Raining pitchforks
Origin … for a gale, and by the 1840s, it was slang, as in a Twain 1876 tale. It reflects pioneer hyperbole and weather's harsh stakes, growing into a quirky idiom of nature's fury, less common but striking…