bull in a china shop

Idioms  

1. An extremely clumsy person, as in Her living room, with its delicate furniture and knickknacks, made him feel like a bull in a china shop. The precise origin for this term has been lost; it was first recorded in Frederick Marryat's novel, Jacob Faithful (1834).

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Example Sentences

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bull in a china shop

Or so often acted like a bull in a china shop, such as by threatening war with Greenland.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026

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

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

“A bull in a china shop, that’s what she is,” Miss Benson, the librarian, says under her breath.

From "The Skin I'm In" by Sharon G. Flake