Cast pearls before swine

To offer something valuable or good to someone who does not know its value:

I’m afraid you’re casting pearls before swine with your good advice – he won’t listen.

Cambridge Dictionary

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  • The idiom “cast pearls before swine” is a metaphorical expression that means to offer something valuable or refined to someone who is incapable of appreciating its worth.
  • It suggests giving something valuable to someone who lacks the understanding or sophistication to recognize its true value. 
  • The phrase originates from a biblical reference found in the Gospel of Matthew (7:6), where it advises not to cast pearls before swine, emphasizing the idea of not presenting valuable things to those who won’t appreciate them. 
  • In a broader sense, the idiom is used to caution against wasting one’s efforts or resources on people who cannot or will not understand or value them.

Cast pearls before swine

Do something or offer something to someone who can’t appreciate it.

Giving a beautiful birthday card to the blind child is like casting pearls before swine.

The key points of the idiom “cast pearls before swine” include:

  1. Value and Worth:

    • The idiom emphasizes the concept of presenting something valuable and refined, symbolized by pearls.
  2. Inappreciative Audience:

    • It suggests offering this valuable item to individuals who are unable or unwilling to appreciate its true worth.
  3. Wasting Resources:

    • The expression conveys a caution against expending efforts, resources, or valuable things on those who are unlikely to understand or value them.
  4. Lack of Sophistication:

    • The idiom implies that the recipients lack the sophistication or discernment to recognize the value of what is being offered.
  5. Biblical Origin:

    • The phrase originates from a biblical reference in the Gospel of Matthew, adding a historical and religious context to its usage.
  6. Futility of Explanation:

    • It suggests that attempting to explain or share something valuable with those who cannot appreciate it is futile.
  7. Metaphorical Nature:

    • The idiom is metaphorical, using the image of casting pearls before swine to convey the idea of giving something precious to those who cannot understand its significance.
  8. Wise Allocation of Resources:

    • The expression encourages individuals to wisely allocate their efforts and resources, directing them toward those who can genuinely appreciate and benefit from them.

In summary, “cast pearls before swine” warns against offering valuable things to those who cannot appreciate their worth, emphasizing the need for discernment in allocating resources and efforts.

Live Police Chase  

9 apr. 2011

 
Wanted man puts on fake glasses, nose and mustache so as not to be recognized by a pursuing cop and it works. A presentation of the Just For Laughs Gags. The funny hidden camera pranks show for the whole family. Juste pour rire les gags, l’émission de caméra caché la plus comique de la télé!

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– and I fear I may be casting pearls before swine once again.

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I suppose he could have said: ‘I’m fed up with casting pearls before swine’.

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No less a master of the simile than Wittgenstein complains that relating his ideas is like “casting pearls before swine”.

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Glenn Hoddle might in future heed the advice of another beleaguered spiritual heretic who cautioned against casting pearls before swine.

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The Japanese idiom neko ni koban (猫に小判, literally, “gold coins for cats”) is an equivalent for casting pearls before swine.

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exclusivity goes back hundreds of years: Hamlet declared that a play “pleased not the million – it was caviare to the general”, the gastronomic equivalent of casting

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It appears Mr Barrett may well have been casting pearls before swine.

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In Matthew 7:6, Jesus warns his followers not to cast pearls before swine.

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Why should you cast your pearls before swine?

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They had cast their pearl before swine, and they damn near lost the farm doing it.

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Elaborately dressed and carefully made up, he will cast his pearls before swine and his body before bulls.

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Perhaps that’s why her segment burned brightest, that and the knock ’em dead presence of Russian guest Irina Kolesnikova, casting her pearls before swine

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Stephen Garrett, of the independent production company Kudos, agrees that the problem is not one of young film-makers casting pearls before the swine of

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Lord Jesus warns against teaching those who are unprepared and cannot understand: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls

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Pearls before swine.

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Pearls before swine, indeed!

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Pearls before swine, and what pearls they are.

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Prosperity has been abused—pearls before swine.

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Pearls Before Swine 15 Jan. 1997 15.

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We thought of ourselves as pearls before swine.

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In Asset, he threw a pearl before swine.

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“I had a real feeling of pearls before swine.

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“I had a distinct feeling of pearls before swine…

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Rosewater; or Pearls Before Swine” 1965.

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“And pearls before swine,” returned Miss Parker, sweeping magisterially ahead.

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A rare case, this dinner party, of swine before pearls.

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What an effective maxim, ‘Don’t throw your pearls before swine,’ ” he said.

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Poets themselves best describe the pearls-before-swine risk of populist versifying.

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(Do we, in other words, cast Perle before swine?)

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Today his daily strip, “Pearls Before Swine,” appears in more than 500 newspapers.

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In a Pearls Before Swine strip, Rat, on steroids, decides he “will kick Mary Worth’s &#$*%!”

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Some Pearls Before Swine strips include appearances by the Family Circus characters or parodic Family Circus strips.

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You have found the comics and you open it up to one of your favorite comics, Pearls Before Swine.

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“Pearls before swine, I can tell yer.”

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On the other hand, Peugeot could spot pearl among swine.

The Crow and the

Sell your soul

Stab someone

No shame

Carrying coals

Current page

When hell freezes