Hale sale is gude sale.
Hale claith's afore cloutit.
Half acres bear aye gude corn.
Meaning that when people have but little property, they take good care of it.
Half a tale is enough for a wise man.
Hallowe'en bairns see far.
"And touching the bairn, it's weel kent she was born on Hallowe'en was nine years gane, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see mair than ither folk."
The Monastery.
Hame's a hamely word.
"Hame's hamely," quo' the deil when he found himsel in the Court o' Session.
Hand in gear helps weel.
Hand in use is father o' lear.
The constant practice of our profession is the surest road to "lear" or affluence.
Handle your tools without mittens.
Hand ower head, as men took the covenant.
"Alluding to the manner in which the covenant, so famous in Scottish history, was violently taken by above sixty thousand persons about Edinburgh, in 1638; a novel circumstance at that time, though afterwards paralleled by the French, in voting by acclamation."-- Fielding.
Handsome is that handsome does.
Hang a thief when he's young, and he'll no steal when he's auld.
Hang him that has nae shift, and hang him that has ower mony.
Hang hunger and drown drouth.
Hanging gaes by hap.
Hanging's nae better than it's cad.
Hanging's sair on the eesight.
Hankering an' hinging-on is a poor trade.
Hands aff is fair play.
Hap an' a ha'penny is world's gear enough.
Happiness and moderate means in this world are enough.
Happy for the son when the dad gaes to the deil.
"For commonly they who first raise great estates, do it either by usury and extortion, by fraud and cozening, or by flattery, and by ministering to other men's vices."-- Ray.
"Alas for the son whose father goes to heaven!"- Portuguese.
Happy is the bride that the sun shines on; happy is the corpse that the rain rains on.
Happy is the wooing that's no lang o' doing.
Happy man be his dool.
A good wish,--that happiness may be the greatest affliction sent him.
Happy man, happy kavel.
Happy the man that belongs to nae party, but sits in his ain house, and looks at Benarty.
"Sir Michael Malcolm, of Loch Ore, an eccentric baronet, pronounced this oracular couplet in his old age, when troubled with the talk of the French Revolution. As a picture of meditative serenity and neutrality, it seems worthy of preservation."--Robert Chambers.
Happy's the maid that's married to a mitherless son.
Hard fare maks hungry bellies.
Hardships seldom come single.
Haste and anger hinder gude counsel.
Haste maks waste, and waste maks want, and want maks strife between the gudeman and the gudewife.
Hasty meet, hasty part.
"An observation upon marriage suddenly contracted, as if it were ominous, and portended a sudden separation."-- Kelly.
Hasty was hanged, but Speed-o-foot wan awa.
Haud the hank in your ain hand.
Do the difficult part of your work yourself, or retain every advantage you can.
Haud your feet, Lucky Dad, auld folk's no fiery.
Literally, look to your feet, as you are not nimble: applied when people stumble.
Haud you hand, your father slew a whaup.
Haud your hands aff ither folk's bairns till ye get some o' your ain.
Hawks winna pike out hawks' een.
"It was an unco thing to see hawks pike out hawks' een, or ae kindly Scot cheat anither."-- Rob Roy.
Hearken to the hinder-end, after comes not yet.
Hearts may 'gree though heads may differ.
He begs frae them that borrowed frae him.
He bides as fast as a cat does to a saucer.
Meaning that a person will "bide" or stay only so long as he can get anything, or serve his own purpose.
He blaws in his lug fu' brawly.
"Blaw his hug," to praise a person in an extravagant or fulsome manner.
He blushes at it like a beggar at a bawbee.
He breeds o' the gowk that casts a' down at e'en
He brings a staff to break his ain head.
He can do ill, and he may do gude.
He can haud the cat and play wi' the kitten.
He can ill rin that canna gang.
He can lee like a dog licking a dish.
He canna see an inch before his nose.
He can say "My Jo," and think it no.
That is, he can be complimentary in his speech, but not in his intentions.
He can suck the laverock's frae the lift.
"In relation to one who possesses great power of wheedling. It evidently alludes to the idea of the fascinating power of serpents by means of their breath."- Jamieson.
He can wile the flounders out o' the sea.
"'Heard ye ever the like o' that, laird? said Saddletree to Dumbiedikes, when the counsel had ended his speech. 'There's a chiel can spin a muckle pirn out o' a wee tait o' tow ! . . . And he's cleckit this great muckle bird out o' this wee egg ! He could wile the very flounders out o' the Firth.'"-- Heart of Midlothian.
He caresna wha's bairns greet if his ain laugh.
He ca's me scabbed because I winna ca' him sca'd.
Meaning that a man has endeavoured to make his opponent in a particular transaction lose his temper. but failing to do so, he loses his own.
"Hech !" quo' Howie, when he swallowed his wife's clue.
"Hech !" is here used as an expression of surprise and relief that a disagreeable operation has been performed. A "clue" is a ball of worsted.
He comes oftener wi' the rake than the shool.
"Spoken of a poor friend whose business is not to give us, but to get from us."-- Kelly.
He comes o' gude, he canna be ill.
A satirical expression applied to persons who are vain enough to suppose that they can do no wrong.
He complains early that complains o' his parritch.
He counts his ha'penny gude siller.
Meaning that a person may confer a very small favour, and have a greatly exaggerated idea of his own generosity.
He cuts near the wood.
To "cut near the wood" is to be very keen in driving a bargain.
He daurna say "Bo" to your blanket.
He doesna aye ride when he saddles his horse.
He doesna ken a B frae a bull's foot.
A saying denoting that a person is extremely ignorant.
He doesna ken what end o' him's upmost.
He doesna like his wark that says "Now!" when it's done.
He doubles his gift that gies in time.
He eats the calf i' the cow's wame.
Which means, in other words, he has spent his fortune before he received it ; that "He has eaten his corn in the blade."-- French.
Heedna says, or ye'll ne'er sit at ease.
He fells twa dogs wi' ae bane.
"Pate disna fend on that alane ;
He can fell twa dogs wi' ae bane,
While ither folk
Must rest themselves content wi' ane,
Nor farer track."-- Fergusson.
He flings the helve after the hatchet.
He fyles his neighbour's cog to get the brose himsel.
Meaning that a person has been wicked enough to injure the character of another that he might supplant him in influence or position.
He gaed for oo' but came hame shorn.
" A camel going to seek horns lost his ears."-- Arabic.
He gangs awa in an ill time that ne'er comes back again.
He gangs far aboot seeking the nearest.
He gangs frae the jilt to the gellock.
To "jilt," to throw or dash water on a person; "gellock" (gavelock), an iron lever or crowbar. Meaning, pet haps, that a man's temper is such that he passes from the extreme of playfulness to that of passion very quickly.
He gangs lang barefoot that waits for dead men's shune.
He gaes nae whitings without banes.
Or, if he confers an obligation, it is sure to have some condition attached to it.
He girns like a sheep's head in a pair o' tangs.
"Little Andrew, the wratch, has been makin' a totum wi' his faither's ae razor; an' the pair man's trying to shave himsel yonder, an' girnan like a sheep's head on the tangs."
Hugh Miller.
He got his mother's malison the day he was married.
Spoken of a man who has a bad wife.
He had gude skill o' horse flesh wha bought a goose to ride an.
He harps aye on ae string.
He has a bee in his bonnet-lug.
Applied when a person is very much occupied with a project of his own.
He has a cauld coal to blaw at.
"A' things o' religion hae settled into a method that gies the patronless preacher but little chance o' a kirk. Wi' your oye's ordinar looks, I fear, though he were to grow as learned as Matthew Henry himsel, he would hae but a cauld coal to blaw at."-- Sir Andrew Wylie.
He has a crap for a' corn.
He has a gude judgment that doesna lippen to his ain.
He has a hearty hand for a hungry meltith.
He bestows charity liberally.
He has a hole beneath his nose that winna let his back be rough.
Meaning that his extravagance in the matter of food is such that it prevents his back being "rough" or well clothed.
He has a lang clue to wind.
"I might hae been in a state and condition to look at Miss Girzy; but, ye ken, I hae a lang clue to wind before I maun think o' playing the ba' wi' Fortune, in ettling so far aboun my reach."-- The Entail.
He has an ill look among lambs.
He has a saw for a' sairs.
That is, a salve or "balm for every wound."
He has a slid grip that has an eel by the tail.
"Spoken to those who have to do with cunning fellows whom you can hardly bind sure enough."-- Kelly.
He has been rowed in his mother's sark tail.
Synonymous with being "tied to his mother's apron-string," i.e., kept too strictly under parental authority.
He has brought his pack to a braw market.
He has come to gude by misguiding.
He has coosten his cloak on the ither shouther.
He has coup'd the muckle pat into the little.
Sarcastically applied to those who claim to have executed extraordinary deeds.
He has drowned the miller.
Meaning that in mixing liquids, as in mixing toddy, too much water has been added. The English say, "He has put the miller's eye out."
He has faut o' a wife that marries mam's pet.
He has feathered his nest, he may flee when he likes.
He has gane without taking his leave.
He has gi'en up a trade and ta'en to stravaigin'.
A humorous way of expressing that a man has retired from business to live comfortably. To "stravaig" is to walk about idly.
He has got a bite o' his ain bridle.
He has gotten his kail through the reek.
"To meet with severe reprehension. To meet with what causes bitterness or thorough repentance as to any course that one has taken."-- Jamieson.
He has gotten the boot and the better beast.
This saying has evidently emanated from the stable. When persons wish to exchange horses, he who has the poorest animal gives a "boot" or compensation in addition to the horse, to make the exchange equal The proverb is applied to a person who has over-reached his neighbour.
He has gotten the whip hand o' him.
He has got the heavy end of him.
Meaning that in an argument or struggle he has the best of it.
He has help'd me out o' a deadlift.
Or rendered very great assistance in an emergency.
He has hit the nail on the head.
He has it o' kind, he coft it not.
Meaning that a person's bad qualities are inherited from his parents; equivalent to the saying, "What's bred m the bone won't out of the flesh."
He has left the key in the cat-hole.
He has licket the butter aff my bread.
To "lick the butter," in proverbial phraseology, is to supplant a person in business, or so interfere with his arrangements as to injure them.
He has made a moonlight flitting.
To "shoot the moon," as the English say, is to decamp from a house without paying the rent.
He has mair floor than he has flail for.
Or more work than he can overtake.
He has mair jaw than judgment.
He has mair wit in his wee finger than ye hae in your hale bouk.
He has muckle prayer, but little devotion.
He hasna a bauchle to swear by.
He hasna a hail nail to claw him wi'.
He hasna as muckle sense as a cow could haud in her faulded nieve.
He has nae clag till his tail.
"A vulgar phrase, signifying that there is no stain on one's character, or that no one can justly exhibit a charge against him."-- Jamieson.
He has nae mair mense than a miller's horse.
Vide, "As menseless as a tinkler's messan."
He has naething to crave at my hand.
He has need o' a clean pow that ca's his neighbour nitty now.
"A man ought to be free of those faults that he throws up to others."-- Kelly.
He has neither stock nor brock.
He has neither money nor meat.
He has ower many greedy gleds o' his ain.