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.

MAIDENS should be mild and meek, quick to hear, and slow to speak.
Maidens want naething but a man, and then they want a'thing.
Mair by luck than gude guiding.
Mair hamely than welcome.
"Mair haste the waur speed," quo' the tailor to the lang thread.
Mair nice than wise.
Mair pride than pith.
Mair than enough is ower muckle.
Mair than the deil wear a black manteel.
"Mair whistle than woo," quo' the souter when he sheared the sow.
The saying, "Great cry and little wool," is common to all nations ; the Scottish version, however, is the most expressive and humorous we have met with.
Maister's will is gude wark.
For the master himself is sure to be pleased with it.
Maistry maws the meadows doun.
"The captain's a queer hand . . . . he keeps a high hand ower the country, and we couldna deal with the Hielandmen without his protection, sin' a' the keys o' the kintray hings at his belt; and he's no an ill body in the main; and maistry, ye ken, maws the meadows doun."-- Heart of Midlothian.
Mak ae wrang step and down ye gae.
Mak ae pair o' legs worth twa pain o' hands
"He freed Rashleigh from my hold, amid securing me, notwithstanding my struggles, in his own Herculean gripe, he called out, 'Take the bent, Mr Rashleigh-make ae pair o' legs worth twa pair o' hands; ye hae done that before now.'"- Rob Roy.