THE BLACK OX HAS TROD ON HIS FOOT, phr. (old colloquial).—To know decay, misfortune, or old age.—B. E. (c. 1696).
1546. HEYWOOD, Proverbs.
| THE BLACK OXE HAD NOT TRODE ON HIS OR HER FOOTE; | |
| But ere his braunch of blisse could reach any roote, | |
| The flowers so faded, that in fifteen weekes, | |
| A man might copy the change in the cheekes. |
1557. TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, ‘Of Wiving and Thriving.’
| Why then do folk, this proverb put, | |
| THE BLACK OX NEAR TROD ON THY FOOT, | |
| If that way were to thrive. |
1581. J. LYLY, Euphues, E 1. When the black crowe’s foote shall appeare in their eie, or the BLACK OXE TREAD ON THEIR FOOTE—who will like them in their age who liked non in their youth.
1670. RAY, Proverbial Phrases, 205. THE BLACK OX NEVER TROD ON HIS FOOT, i.e., he never knew what sorrow or adversity meant.
1850. L. HUNT, Autobiography, iv. THE BLACK OX TROD ON THE fairy FOOT of my Cousin Fan.
