Word.ws English Dictionary

taken the bull by the horns

taken the bull by the horns is the past participle of take the bull by the horns.

Meaning of take the bull by the horns

Verb

take the bull by the horns (third-person singular simple present takes the bull by the horns, present participle taking the bull by the horns, simple past took the bull by the horns, past participle taken the bull by the horns)

  1. To deal with a matter in a direct manner, especially to confront a difficulty rather than avoid it.
    • Wordsworth has a system which disposes him to take the bull by the horns and offend public taste.1828 May, Sir Walter Scott, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott

Questions about taken the bull by the horns

What is taken the bull by the horns the past participle of?
Taken the bull by the horns is the past participle of take the bull by the horns.

Words near taken the bull by the horns in the dictionary

  1. taken the bench
  2. taken the biscuit
  3. taken the bitter with the sweet
  4. taken the bread out of someone's mouth
  5. taken the Browns to the Super Bowl
  6. taken the bull by the horns
  7. taken the cake
  8. taken the chair
  9. taken the chill off
  10. taken the Chiltern Hundreds
  11. taken the count

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taken the bull by the horns (page history and authors); take the bull by the horns (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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