"poke the bear" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "The second sense refers to the use of bears to represent Russia, as a shortening of the idiom \"poke the Russian bear\" (to anger or threaten Russia and start a war with Russia).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pokes the bear",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "poking the bear",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "poked the bear",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "poked the bear",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "poke the bear (third-person singular simple present pokes the bear, present participle poking the bear, simple past and past participle poked the bear)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "bearbaiting"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "ruffle some feathers"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "60 40",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012, Marty Makary, Unaccountable, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, page 17",
          "text": "Throughout my training I witnessed several doctors run out of town because their honesty and outspokenness began to poke the bear.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 October 12, Andrew Marantz, “Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself”, in The New Yorker",
          "text": "His advice to Zuckerberg, the Times later reported, was “Don’t poke the bear”—avoid incurring the wrath of Trump and his supporters.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deliberately aggravate somebody, especially somebody in a position of power or authority."
      ],
      "id": "en-poke_the_bear-en-verb-bTLyCSKp",
      "links": [
        [
          "aggravate",
          "aggravate"
        ],
        [
          "power",
          "power"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) To deliberately aggravate somebody, especially somebody in a position of power or authority."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "2 98",
          "kind": "place",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Russia",
          "orig": "en:Russia",
          "parents": [
            "Asia",
            "Europe",
            "Earth",
            "Eurasia",
            "Nature",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 100",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Russian politics",
          "orig": "en:Russian politics",
          "parents": [
            "Politics",
            "Russia",
            "Society",
            "Asia",
            "Europe",
            "All topics",
            "Earth",
            "Eurasia",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deliberately anger Russia or the Russian government."
      ],
      "id": "en-poke_the_bear-en-verb-P9pt81Fj",
      "links": [
        [
          "deliberately",
          "deliberately"
        ],
        [
          "anger",
          "anger"
        ],
        [
          "Russia",
          "Russia"
        ],
        [
          "Russian",
          "Russian"
        ],
        [
          "government",
          "government"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, idiomatic) To deliberately anger Russia or the Russian government."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "poke the bear"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Russia",
    "en:Russian politics"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The second sense refers to the use of bears to represent Russia, as a shortening of the idiom \"poke the Russian bear\" (to anger or threaten Russia and start a war with Russia).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pokes the bear",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "poking the bear",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "poked the bear",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "poked the bear",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "poke the bear (third-person singular simple present pokes the bear, present participle poking the bear, simple past and past participle poked the bear)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "bearbaiting"
    },
    {
      "word": "ruffle some feathers"
    },
    {
      "word": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012, Marty Makary, Unaccountable, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, page 17",
          "text": "Throughout my training I witnessed several doctors run out of town because their honesty and outspokenness began to poke the bear.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 October 12, Andrew Marantz, “Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself”, in The New Yorker",
          "text": "His advice to Zuckerberg, the Times later reported, was “Don’t poke the bear”—avoid incurring the wrath of Trump and his supporters.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deliberately aggravate somebody, especially somebody in a position of power or authority."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "aggravate",
          "aggravate"
        ],
        [
          "power",
          "power"
        ],
        [
          "authority",
          "authority"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) To deliberately aggravate somebody, especially somebody in a position of power or authority."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deliberately anger Russia or the Russian government."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "deliberately",
          "deliberately"
        ],
        [
          "anger",
          "anger"
        ],
        [
          "Russia",
          "Russia"
        ],
        [
          "Russian",
          "Russian"
        ],
        [
          "government",
          "government"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, idiomatic) To deliberately anger Russia or the Russian government."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "poke the bear"
}