ProverbHub
Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«اِلْبِسْ تِعْجِبْ اِمْرَأَتَكْ وَلَبِّسْ اِمْرَأَتَكْ تِعْجِبِ النَّاسْ»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

Your own finery may delight your wife, but treating her well and presenting her with dignity wins wider respect.

Literal wording

Dress well and you will please your wife; dress your wife well and you will please people.

Meaning and lesson

The saying contrasts a husband's personal display with care for his wife. In its husband-centred, potentially dated framing, it commends attentiveness to her as a more publicly valued sign of character than dressing impressively oneself.

Beyond clothing, it presents household dignity as honouring and caring for one's wife. It frames such care as generosity and respectable conduct, rather than endorsing the gendered social assumptions reflected in its wording.

When it is used

Used to advise a husband not to focus only on his own appearance or status, but to show consideration for his wife. It may arise in discussions of generosity, domestic responsibility, and dignified care within marriage; its gendered assumptions can sound dated today.

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