ProverbHub
Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«جُوعَهْ عَلَى جُوعَهْ تِخَلِّي الصَّبِيَّهْ زُوعَهْ»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

Go hungry time after time, and even a blooming girl turns haggard.

Literal wording

Hunger upon hunger makes the young girl a gaunt, ill-looking thing.

Meaning and lesson

Something that seems bearable once becomes damaging when it keeps coming back. Repetition lends even a modest force a cumulative weight, so that sooner or later it is bound to leave a visible mark on whoever endures it.

The image is a healthy young girl whose looks waste away under repeated hunger until she is thin and drawn; the damage is bodily decline, not mere plainness. It warns that small, recurring deprivations add up and eventually show.

When it is used

Use it when someone dismisses a recurring hardship, habit, or pressure as harmless, as a warning or rueful remark that repeated small blows will eventually show. Because the image dwells on a young woman's looks, stressing the general point about accumulated strain may suit some settings better.

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