proverbial
adjective
pro·ver·bi·al
prə-ˈvər-bē-əl 
1
: of, relating to, or resembling a proverb
2
: that has become a proverb or byword : commonly spoken of
the proverbial smoking gun
Examples of proverbial in a Sentence
Insanity roamed through her large midwestern tribe, cloistered in proverbial dark closets in gabled houses in areas of the country where no one else lived for miles and miles …
—
Lynne Tillman, Motion Sickness, 1991
I keep running across people who speak fondly about what they imagine to be the comforts of autocracy, who long for the assurances of the proverbial man on the white horse likely to do something hard and puritanical about the moral relativism that has made a mess of the cities, the schools, and prime-time television.
—Lewis H. Lapham, Harper's, November 1990
Lynne Tillman, Motion Sickness, 1991
I keep running across people who speak fondly about what they imagine to be the comforts of autocracy, who long for the assurances of the proverbial man on the white horse likely to do something hard and puritanical about the moral relativism that has made a mess of the cities, the schools, and prime-time television.
—Lewis H. Lapham, Harper's, November 1990
Recent Examples on the Web
Davis, who is set to graduate in May with a degree in Communications before embarking on a career in coaching and/or pro basketball overseas, has held up his end of the proverbial bargain.
—Walter Villa, Miami Herald, 10 Mar. 2026
Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas doesn’t have the proverbial strong stomach necessary to guide a team out of mediocrity.
—Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 9 Mar. 2026
Will the Golden Knights flip some proverbial switch in mid-April?
—Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 7 Mar. 2026
In the absence of hard data, the kind that become available years or decades after a war, the temptation is to reach for analogies or proverbial wisdom, or any of the other heuristic shortcuts that the psychologist Daniel Kahneman thoroughly described in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow.
—Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for proverbial
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Walter Villa, Miami Herald, 10 Mar. 2026
Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas doesn’t have the proverbial strong stomach necessary to guide a team out of mediocrity.
—Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 9 Mar. 2026
Will the Golden Knights flip some proverbial switch in mid-April?
—Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 7 Mar. 2026
In the absence of hard data, the kind that become available years or decades after a war, the temptation is to reach for analogies or proverbial wisdom, or any of the other heuristic shortcuts that the psychologist Daniel Kahneman thoroughly described in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow.
—Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for proverbial
Cite this Entry
“Proverbial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proverbial. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
proverbial
adjective
pro·ver·bi·al
prə-ˈvər-bē-əl
1
: of, relating to, or resembling a proverb
proverbial wisdom
2
: commonly spoken of
the proverbial beginner's luck
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