Anna Karenina vocabulary

7 idioms used

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7 [idiom] words
nightingales can't live on fairy tales
to fling one's cap over the windmill
the game is not worth the candle
make a clean breast
tied to apron strings
where the shoe pinches
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nightingales can't live on fairy tales

help with synonyms  synonyms: соловей баснями не кормят, fine words butter no parsnips ???
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Definition:
a Russian proverb: words achieve nothing.
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Uses:
'Well, I don't know about being handsome,' remarked Vassily Ivanovitch, 'but he's a man, as the saying is, ommfay. And now I hope, Arina Vlasyevna, that having satisfied your maternal heart, you will turn your thoughts to satisfying the appetites of our dear guests, because, as you're aware, even nightingales can't be fed on fairy tales.'

Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and Sons.
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I’ve come to bring you some money, too, for nightingales, we know, can’t live on fairy tales," he said. "You want it, I expect?"

Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina
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