beard the lion

Idioms  

1. Confront a danger, take a risk, as in I went straight to my boss, bearding the lion. This term was originally a Latin proverb based on a Bible story (I Samuel 17:35) about the shepherd David, who pursued a lion that had stolen a lamb, caught it by its beard, and killed it. By Shakespeare's time it was being used figuratively, as it is today. Sometimes the term is amplified to beard the lion in his den, which may combine the allusion with another Bible story, that of Daniel being shut in a lions' den for the night (Daniel 6:16–24).

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Example Sentences

The topic courage, for instance, involved for him everything from audacity to spunk, Perseus to gamecock, to "beard the lion in his den."

From Time Magazine Archive

The bunch told me not to beard the lion in his den, but I’m not afraid of lions.

From Tom Slade on Mystery Trail by Owen, R. Emmett (Robert Emmett)

I determined to be present, To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall; to see the labouring Irish in their thousands marching onward to Freedom.

From Ireland as It Is And as It Would be Under Home Rule by Buckley, Robert John

And darest thou then To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall?

From In Château Land by Wharton, Anne Hollingsworth

And dar'st thou then To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall?

From Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two by Various