A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

ONE for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot, one to grow
Other forms of this traditional country saying relating to sowing are also illustrated here.

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  1850 Notes & Queries 1st Ser. II. 515 How to sow Beans. ‘One for the mouse, One for the crow, One to rot, One to grow.’ 1941 L. I. WILDER Little Town on Prairie ii. ‘Kernels,’ said Pa. ‘Four kernels. . . One for the blackbird, One for the crow, And that will leave Just two to grow.’ 1961 N. LOFTS House at Old Vine I. 34 Careful farmers.. sow their seed broadcast, saying: One for wind and one for crow One to die and one to grow. ■ garden lore
  

ONE nail drives out another
Cf. ARISTOTLE Politics 1314a ■ • one nail knocks out another,
according to the proverb.

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  a 1250 Ancrene Wisse (1962) 206 An neil driueth ut then other. 1555 J. HEYWOOD Two Hundred Epigrams no. 112 One nayle dryueth out an other. 1591 SHAKESPEARE Two Gentlemen of Verona II. iv. 189 As one nail by strength drives out another, So the remembrance of my former love Is by a newer object quite forgotten. c 1645 J. HOWELL Familiar Letters 17 Sept. (1903) III. 87 Languages and words.. may be said to stick in the memory like nails or pegs in a wainscot door, which used to thrust out one another oftentimes. 1852 E. FITZGERALD Polonius cxvii. One nail drives out another. 1979 V. CANNING Satan Sampler ix. He needed a home with a woman in it. One nail drove out another. ■change
  

ONE size does not fit all
Earlier versions of this saying are based on the metaphor of different size shoes for different feet; cf. 1587 J. BRIDGES Defence of Government of Church of England 86 Diverse feete have diverse lastes. The shooe that will serve one, may wring another.

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  1616 B. RICH My Ladies Looking Glaasse 21 As every shooe is not fit for every foote, nor every medicine to be applyed to every maladie, so every fashion, doth not befit every person, not every colour agree with every complexion. 1712 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 96 Every shoe fits not every foot. Every condition of life, every behaviour, every speech and gesture becomes not every body; that will be decent in one, which will be ridiculous in another. 1874 Ascott House, Buckinghamshire, UK (painted on cornice) Every shoe fits not every foot. 2002 Times 20 Mar. 26 Yesterday Sir Howard Davies . . gave warning that there was a danger that Europe’s approach to financial markets was in danger of trying to strap the different European markets into rigid rules that risked damaging their international competitiveness. One size does not fit all, he said. ■ways and means