Jump To:

• Still waters run deep
  Still waters run deep

  A person's calm exterior often conceals great depths of character, just as the deepest streams can have the smoothest surfaces.
• still waters run deep
  still waters run deep

  A quiet person may be very profound, as in Susie rarely says much, but still waters run deep. The physical observation in this term dates from ancient times, but it has been used figuratively since about 1400. Anthony Trollope amplified it in He Knew He Was Right (1869): “That's what I call still water. She runs deep enough. . . . So quiet, but so—clever.”

Still waters run deep

Cultural  

1. A person's calm exterior often conceals great depths of character, just as the deepest streams can have the smoothest surfaces.

---

still waters run deep Idioms  

1. A quiet person may be very profound, as in Susie rarely says much, but still waters run deep. The physical observation in this term dates from ancient times, but it has been used figuratively since about 1400. Anthony Trollope amplified it in He Knew He Was Right (1869): “That's what I call still water. She runs deep enough. . . . So quiet, but so—clever.”

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Still waters run deep still waters run deep

Still waters run deep, the silent swine devour the milk.

From A Black Adonis by Linn Boyd Porter

"Still waters run deep," said the boatswain, who was beginning to have a high opinion of himself.

From Many Cargoes by W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs

Still waters run deep, and Richards was astute, though perhaps he did not look it.

From As We Sweep Through The Deep by Gordon Stables

The young man felt the truth of the proverb, "Still waters run deep:" and his heart had sunk into their depths.

From Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

"Still waters run deep," they said, and all those to whom they said it nodded in a wise acquiescence.

From First and Last by Hilaire Belloc

The filmmakers — Janus Metz directed, from a screenplay by Ronnie Sandahl — focus on the melancholy Swede, perhaps out of Scandinavian pride and perhaps because they believe his still waters run deep.

From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2018

In Lightfoot’s songcraft, still waters run deep, or at least deeper than you’d expect for someone who became branded an easy-listening artist.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 2, 2017

My, but Tom Jacobson’s still waters run deep.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2017

She is one of those characters, of whom it has been said proverbially, that "still waters run deep."

From Characteristics of Women Moral, Poetical, and Historical by Mrs. (Anna) Jameson

"Sometimes still waters run deep," said Miss Hilary.

From Mistress and Maid by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik