A Stitch in Thyme Saves Nine: [archaic] Derives from the medieval belief that thyme, properly sewn into clothing, is an effective form of birth control.
Brass Tax: Fine assessed as a penalty for particularly arrogant behavior.
Dammed if You Do, Dammed if You Don’t: An environmental conundrum in which damming a river as an anti-
Discretion is the Better Part of Velour: Older women in track suits are good at keeping secrets.
Give the Devil His Dew: Extreme expression of the Christian admonition to care for those in need
Loose Canon: A set of literary or cultural norms which are too often and/or too promiscuously revised.
Man Cannot Live by Bed Alone: Emphasizes the degree to which men can be unhealthily concerned with sexual matters.
One Man’s Loss is Another Man’s Grain: Tradition, in agrarian societies, that grain spilled in transit is the lawful property of whoever finds and collects it.
The Love of Mommy is the Root of All Evil: Freudian conviction regarding the primacy of Oedipal issues in problems both personal and global.
There is No Odor Among Thieves: A sarcastic inversion of the idea that honest people are “clean.”