Thou wilt scarce be a man before thy mother. (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A boy will not become a man until his mother's death
Literally: You will barely be a man before your mother
Examples
Thou wilt scarce be a man before thy mother
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Thou wilt scarce be a man before thy mother. (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)” mean?
A boy will not become a man until his mother's death Literally: You will barely be a man before your mother
Is “Thou wilt scarce be a man before thy mother. (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.