"the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" meaning in English

See the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: Found as a popular saying from 1840 (See Parent's Monitor and Young People's Friend Volume 1, p. 47 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Parent_s_Monitor_and_Young_People_s_Frie/wv8XAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22hand+that+rocks+the+cradle+rules%22&pg=PA47&printsec=frontcover); made famous by a poem (1865) by William Ross Wallace. Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world}} the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
  1. Women, particularly mothers, have a decisive influence on the future direction of society because they raise and nurture the next generation. Synonyms: the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world Related terms: behind every successful man there stands a woman
    Sense id: en-the_hand_that_rocks_the_cradle_rules_the_world-en-proverb-kloYic~K Categories (other): English proverbs

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "Found as a popular saying from 1840 (See Parent's Monitor and Young People's Friend\nVolume 1, p. 47 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Parent_s_Monitor_and_Young_People_s_Frie/wv8XAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22hand+that+rocks+the+cradle+rules%22&pg=PA47&printsec=frontcover); made famous by a poem (1865) by William Ross Wallace.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world"
      },
      "expansion": "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1865, William Ross Wallace, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle",
          "text": "Blessings on the hand of women! . . .\nFor the hand that rocks the cradle\nIs the hand that rules the world.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1892, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 2, in Children's Rights and Others: A Book of Nursery Logic",
          "text": "We talk a great deal about the strength of early impressions. I wonder if we mean all we say; we do not live up to it, at all events. \"In childish play deep meaning lies.\" \"The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.\" \"Give me the first six years of a child's life, and I care not who has the rest.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981 Nov. 15, Paul A. Colinvaux, \"Women's Work\" (book review of The Woman That Never Evolved by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, New York Times (retrieved 26 Oct 2012)",
          "text": "Men rationalize their dominant estate: Woman's lot is to be the homemaker, the child raiser, the provider of sons; the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."
        },
        {
          "ref": "March 8 2004, “Editorial: Restoring women's dignity”, in Ceylon Daily News, Sri Lanka, retrieved 2012-10-26",
          "text": "President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga . . . quoted Kenyan Bishop Ndimbe's memorable words: \"Train a man, you train an individual, train a woman you build a nation.\" This is the same as saying that the \"hand that rocks the cradle rules the world\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Women, particularly mothers, have a decisive influence on the future direction of society because they raise and nurture the next generation."
      ],
      "id": "en-the_hand_that_rocks_the_cradle_rules_the_world-en-proverb-kloYic~K",
      "links": [
        [
          "mother",
          "mother"
        ],
        [
          "decisive",
          "decisive"
        ],
        [
          "influence",
          "influence"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ],
        [
          "society",
          "society"
        ],
        [
          "nurture",
          "nurture"
        ],
        [
          "generation",
          "generation"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "behind every successful man there stands a woman"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "Found as a popular saying from 1840 (See Parent's Monitor and Young People's Friend\nVolume 1, p. 47 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Parent_s_Monitor_and_Young_People_s_Frie/wv8XAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22hand+that+rocks+the+cradle+rules%22&pg=PA47&printsec=frontcover); made famous by a poem (1865) by William Ross Wallace.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world"
      },
      "expansion": "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "behind every successful man there stands a woman"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1865, William Ross Wallace, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle",
          "text": "Blessings on the hand of women! . . .\nFor the hand that rocks the cradle\nIs the hand that rules the world.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1892, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 2, in Children's Rights and Others: A Book of Nursery Logic",
          "text": "We talk a great deal about the strength of early impressions. I wonder if we mean all we say; we do not live up to it, at all events. \"In childish play deep meaning lies.\" \"The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.\" \"Give me the first six years of a child's life, and I care not who has the rest.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981 Nov. 15, Paul A. Colinvaux, \"Women's Work\" (book review of The Woman That Never Evolved by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, New York Times (retrieved 26 Oct 2012)",
          "text": "Men rationalize their dominant estate: Woman's lot is to be the homemaker, the child raiser, the provider of sons; the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."
        },
        {
          "ref": "March 8 2004, “Editorial: Restoring women's dignity”, in Ceylon Daily News, Sri Lanka, retrieved 2012-10-26",
          "text": "President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga . . . quoted Kenyan Bishop Ndimbe's memorable words: \"Train a man, you train an individual, train a woman you build a nation.\" This is the same as saying that the \"hand that rocks the cradle rules the world\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Women, particularly mothers, have a decisive influence on the future direction of society because they raise and nurture the next generation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mother",
          "mother"
        ],
        [
          "decisive",
          "decisive"
        ],
        [
          "influence",
          "influence"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ],
        [
          "society",
          "society"
        ],
        [
          "nurture",
          "nurture"
        ],
        [
          "generation",
          "generation"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world"
    }
  ],
  "word": "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.