loaded for bear

Idioms  

1. Fully prepared for action; also, spoiling for a fight. For example, Bill tackled his new sales route loaded for bear, or When Martin was three hours late, his wife was loaded for bear. This term, dating from the mid-1800s, alludes to the heavy charge of powder or lead that hunters use for large animals like a bear.

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Example Sentences

“They are loaded for bear, as they say,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times

“Chase Elliott is a heck of a road course racer. I know Hendrick Motorsports is coming loaded for bear for him the next two races.”

From Seattle Times

“The audience, primed by her past publicity as Farouk’s gal, had come to the theater loaded for bear,” The Globe wrote.

From New York Times

“It’s surprising for a rookie justice to speak a lot, let alone more than anyone else. Justice Jackson clearly came out of the gate loaded for bear, to mix metaphors. She speechifies at times, but it’s clear that she’s done the work to ask about the minutiae of various cases,” he said.

From Washington Times

Related The best gaming laptops of 2021 Alienware M15 R4 $1,900 $2,100 10% off The Alienware M15 R4 is a 15.6-inch gaming laptop loaded for bear with an RTX 3070 and 10th Gen Core i7 CPU.

From The Verge