bull in a china shop
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Being a bull in a china shop is not a good idea anywhere, but for some reason that was the culture.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2026
She never even got to clunk and thud her way through any farmhouses or laboratories like a bewigged bull in a china shop.
From Salon • Mar. 8, 2026
Ms Shelley described him as "like a bull in a china shop - once he gets moving, nothing's going to stop him".
From BBC • Dec. 22, 2023
For them, his trade policies complemented the reigning narrative that he was a bull in a china shop, impulsively destroying the beautiful arrangements his intellectual superiors had lovingly created.
From Washington Post • Dec. 13, 2022
They floundered about in the wrong clothes with the incorrect haircut and speech patterns like the proverbial bull in a china shop.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
