cast pearls before swine

Idioms  

1. Give something of value of someone who won't appreciate it, as in The old professor felt that lecturing on Dante to unruly undergraduates would be casting pearls before swine. This term comes from the New Testament (Matthew 7:6), appearing in Tyndale's translation (1526). It was repeated often by writers from Shakespeare to Dickens and remains current.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cast pearls before swine

On her face was the look of one who has cast pearls before swine.

From Okewood of the Secret Service by Valentine Williams

If we cast pearls before swine, my boy, we must not be surprised to find them taken for the seeds of cabbage-heads.

From The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers. Series 3 by Robert H. Newell

Every one knows the expression to cast pearls before swine, and its meaning, "to give good things to people who are too ignorant to appreciate them."

From Stories That Words Tell Us by Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman) O'Neill

Is not this to cast pearls before swine?

From The World's Great Sermons, Volume 01 Basil to Calvin by Grenville Kleiser

No, my dear Gneisenau, one must not cast pearls before swine.

From Napoleon and Blucher by L. (Luise) Mühlbach