Word.ws English Dictionary

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog proverb: if a person is determined to punish or blame someone, they will find a way or a reason to do so.

Proverb

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

  1. (obsolete, rare) If a person is determined to punish or blame someone, they will find a way or a reason to do so.
    • The ancient Prouerbe will be well effected,
      A Staffe is quickly found to beat a Dogge.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • For all this, however, poor Tom smarted in the flesh; for though Thwackum had been inhibited to exercise his arm on the foregoing account, yet, as the proverb says, It is easy to find a stick, &c. So was it easy to find a rod; and, indeed, the not being able to find one was the only thing which...1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V

Questions about it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

What does it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog mean?
It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog means if a person is determined to punish or blame someone, they will find a way or a reason to do so.
What part of speech is it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog?
It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog is a proverb.

Words near it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog in the dictionary

  1. it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive
  2. it is darkest before the dawn
  3. it is darkest just before the dawn
  4. it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God
  5. it is easy to be wise after the event
  6. it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog
  7. it is how it is
  8. it is no accident
  9. it is not even funny
  10. it is not every day
  11. it is not funny

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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