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

They did not beard the lion in full face, by coming out as the first thing with the maxim, that all slavery ought and must be abandoned immediately.

From An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism With reference to the duty of American females by Beecher, Catharine Esther

I'd as soon beard the lion in his den as Aunt Cindy in her kitchen.

From The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation by Barry, Etheldred B. (Etheldred Breeze)

"And you actually mean 'to beard the lion in his den, and Douglas in his hall,'" spouted Marcus.

From Doctor Luttrell's First Patient by Carey, Rosa Nouchette

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