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Waiters upon Providence

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Those who cling to the prosperous, but fall away from decaying fortunes.

“The side of the Puritans was deserted at this period by a numerous class of … prudential persons, who never forsook them till they became unfortunate. These sagacious personages were called … waiters upon Providence and deemed it a high delinquency towards heaven to afford countenance to any cause longer than it was favoured by fortune.”—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. iv.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Wade’s Boat
Wadham College (Oxford)
Wadman (Widow)
Wag Beards (To)
Wages
Wages of Sin (The)
Wagoner
Wahabites
Waifs and Strays
Waistcoat
Waiters upon Providence
Waits
Wake
“Waking a Witch.”
Walbrook Ward (London)
Walcheren Expedition
Waldemar’s Way
Waldenses
Waldo
Wales
Walk (in Hudibras)