This
database is a comprehensive collection of all the American idioms and slang available.
American Idioms are many and varied. We hope you enjoy our collection. We are adding more all the time.
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A man of even limited ability is at a great advantage in
the company of those less able.
It doesn't matter if you don't completely understand how the Internet works! You know more than anyone else here. So, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. An English proverb cited by John Ray in 1678 tells us that "a man were better be half blind than have both eyes out." Not only would he be able to avoid the ditch (fallen into by the blind leading the blind), he might find himself in a position if leadership. "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" is quoted in Erasmus' "Adagia," in 1536. We also see it in John Palsgrave's translation of the "Comedy of Acolastus." In 1522, in his "Why Come Yet Not to Court?" John Skelton tells us that: "an one eyed man is Well sighted when is is amonge blynde men."
This simile means that someone is crazy or behaves very strangely. In the past many people who made hats went insane because they had a lot of contact with mercury.