"red rag to a bull" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly refers to the red cape used by matadors in bullfighting.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "red rags to a bull",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "red rags to bulls",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "red rags to a bull",
        "2": "red rags to bulls"
      },
      "expansion": "red rag to a bull (plural red rags to a bull or red rags to bulls)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English similes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Simply mentioning the word \"nationalism\" to him is like a red rag to a bull.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 6, in Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC:",
          "text": "This was a red rag to the bull. He raged and stormed so (he was crossing the river at the time) that I judge it made him blind, because he ran over the steering-oar of a trading-scow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1886 May, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXX, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "Any suspicion of impropriety was to Elizabeth-Jane like a red rag to a bull.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1873–1884 (date written), Samuel Butler, edited by R[ichard] A[lexander] Streatfeild, The Way of All Flesh, London: Grant Richards, published 1903, →OCLC:",
          "text": "He did not say that he had been visiting among his neighbours; this to Pryer would have been like a red rag to a bull.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 March 28, Graeme McGarry, “Scott McTominay earns place in history as Scotland stun Spain”, in The Herald:",
          "text": "The rolling around and screams of anguish from Porro though were like a red rag to a bull for the Scotland support, who howled and harangued his every touch before he was withdrawn at the interval, presumably for his own safety.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that will enrage another particular person."
      ],
      "id": "en-red_rag_to_a_bull-en-noun-qtTNW535",
      "links": [
        [
          "enrage",
          "enrage"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "red rag"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "red rag to a bull"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly refers to the red cape used by matadors in bullfighting.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "red rags to a bull",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "red rags to bulls",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "red rags to a bull",
        "2": "red rags to bulls"
      },
      "expansion": "red rag to a bull (plural red rags to a bull or red rags to bulls)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English similes",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Simply mentioning the word \"nationalism\" to him is like a red rag to a bull.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 6, in Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC:",
          "text": "This was a red rag to the bull. He raged and stormed so (he was crossing the river at the time) that I judge it made him blind, because he ran over the steering-oar of a trading-scow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1886 May, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXX, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:",
          "text": "Any suspicion of impropriety was to Elizabeth-Jane like a red rag to a bull.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1873–1884 (date written), Samuel Butler, edited by R[ichard] A[lexander] Streatfeild, The Way of All Flesh, London: Grant Richards, published 1903, →OCLC:",
          "text": "He did not say that he had been visiting among his neighbours; this to Pryer would have been like a red rag to a bull.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 March 28, Graeme McGarry, “Scott McTominay earns place in history as Scotland stun Spain”, in The Herald:",
          "text": "The rolling around and screams of anguish from Porro though were like a red rag to a bull for the Scotland support, who howled and harangued his every touch before he was withdrawn at the interval, presumably for his own safety.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that will enrage another particular person."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "enrage",
          "enrage"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "red rag"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "red rag to a bull"
}