Word.ws English Dictionary

taking the bull by the horns

taking the bull by the horns is the present participle and gerund 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 taking the bull by the horns

What is taking the bull by the horns the present participle and gerund of?
Taking the bull by the horns is the present participle and gerund of take the bull by the horns.

Words near taking the bull by the horns in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking 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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