beard the lion

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).

Example Sentences

Monson had now alone to beard the lion in his den.

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I told His Royal Highness I should put on my most becoming Paris bonnet and beard the lion in his den.

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If she'd stay away a little longer, he might forget for a while, but here she's turning up just this very night, just as Bobby has gained courage enough to take the bull by the horns and beard the lion sulking in his tent.

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He would beard the lion in its den, and try to convince this same poacher Jem that he had nothing to fear from a party of boys out on a holiday.

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Whitehead anticipated this summons when he wrote in the poem: Pope writes unhurt—but know, 'tis different quite To beard the lion, and to crush the mite.

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