As healthy as a trout/ a rock/ a ditch

He could buy and sell fairies

He’s as busy as a nailer

That’s a step nearer heaven for you (reward for a good deed done)

You can’t take blood from a stone/ a turnip

Thon one’s as wicked as a weasel

As happy as a bird in a bush

Since she started cutting my hair, I’ve gone as grey as a badger!

That’s as true as the priest said Mass on Sunday

As sure as God made little green apples

He’s as odd as two left feet

As black as the Earl of Hell’s waistcoat

As black as me boot

As black as the back of the fire

As black as the kettle

As black as the hob

As black as the pot

(It was important to have this variety, since ‘black’ meant more than colour!)

That’s the pot calling the kettle black!

As soople as a hare! (supple)

As deaf as the beetle (the pounder for mash potatoes)

As yellow as a duck’s foot

As green as leeks