"almost proverbial" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it to refer to a phrase that is nearly as well known as a proverb or that is often spoken as a proverb. For example, you could say "His quick wit was almost proverbial."
It is, like the rest of the cycle, democratic, affectionate, atmospheric and almost proverbial.
Such almost proverbial sayings, however, do not appear to be rules.
In 1860 the Irwell was described as "almost proverbial for the foulness of its waters; receiving the refuse of cotton factories, coal mines, print works, bleach works, dye works, chemical works, paper works, almost every kind of industry".
An example would be the proverbial (almost) free laptops.
Talk about the proverbial three strikes.
When something becomes proverbial, it almost disappears; and worse, we're allowed to think we know it when we really don't.
Cut ten minutes off of all academic subjects to make time for genuine physical education, and you'll see academic performance improve almost immediately across the proverbial board.
The house-keeping ncRNAs considered in this study are almost certainly only the proverbial tip of the platyhelminth ncRNAs iceberg.
According to Herrmann, many startups have trouble deciding which priorities to follow, not to mention measuring their effectiveness once they do, "almost always landing in the proverbial grey zone".
Part of The Big Bang Theory's continuing success is the fact that because of syndication deals, the show is almost always available somewhere on the proverbial dial.
Little did we know that it would take almost a full decade for the proverbial 9/11 fallout to fall out, for anti-Muslim xenophobia to emerge, fully formed and fever-pitched, ostensibly over plans to build an interfaith cultural center near ground zero.
