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

See Examples For:

beard the lion

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

It would be excellent if James V. or the Irish would undertake to beard the lion in his den, but the Emperor did not see his way clear to accepting the risk himself.

From Henry VIII. by A. F. (Albert Frederick) Pollard

Locke hoped to have the situation well in hand before he should find it necessary to beard the lion in all his fury.

From Lefty Locke Pitcher-Manager by Burt L. Standish

He must beard the lion in his den, and make the attack without any assistant.

From The Vicar of Bullhampton by Anthony Trollope

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 Robert John Buckley