Definition of Proverb

Proverb is a brief, simple and popular saying, or a phrase that gives advice and effectively embodies a commonplace truth based on practical experience or common sense. A proverb may have an allegorical message behind its odd appearance. The reason of popularity is due to its usage in spoken language as well as in the folk literature. Some authors twist and bend proverbs and create anti-proverbs to add literary effects to their works. However, in poetry, poets use proverbs strategically by employing some parts of them in poems’ titles such as Lord Kennet has written a poem, A Bird in the Bush, which is a popular proverb. Some poems contain multiple proverbs like Paul Muldoon’s poem Symposium.

Examples of Proverbs from Literature

Example 1

From Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart:

“If a child washes his hands he could eat with kings.”

If you remove the dirt of your ancestors, you can have a better future. Everyone can build his/her own fame.

“A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.”

Everything happens for a reason and for something not for nothingness.

“A child’s fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm.”

Children who obey their mothers are not punished.

Definition of Idiom

An idiom is an expression that takes on a figurative meaning when certain words are combined which is different from the literal definition of the individual words. For example, let's say I said: 'Don't worry, driving out to your house is a piece of cake.' We would understand that the expression 'piece of cake' means that it's easy. Normally, we obviously wouldn't associate the word 'cake' when it is on its own as anything other than dessert. But in this context, it's a well-known idiom.

Examples of Idioms

There are tens of thousands of idioms used in the English language. As we can probably understand, idioms are difficult for people whose first language is not English. Actually, even native English speakers in the Motherland of England have a hard time with American idioms. Americans know them because they're common expressions. We're used to hearing them in our homes, at school, and in our favorite television programs.
Sometimes American idioms make their way around the world, and sometimes an expression doesn't even make it out of a particular state. Here a few of the most commonly used idioms in the United States and their likely origins. (Note that these origins may be in dispute.)
'As happy as a clam'
Mary was happy as a clam on the day of her wedding.
Meaning: Pleased, very content
Origin: So why in the world would a clam ever be happy? They're shellfish, they don't have feelings. The expression most likely began because when a clam's shell is opened up, it does look like the clam is smiling.