"when you mess with the bull, you get the horns" meaning in English

See when you mess with the bull, you get the horns in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} when you mess with the bull, you get the horns, {{en-proverb}} when you mess with the bull, you get the horns
  1. (informal) If you provoke someone dangerous, you can expect an aggressive reaction. Tags: informal Categories (topical): Anger Synonyms: if you mess with the bull, you get the horns, mess with the bull, get the horns Related terms: poke the bear
    Sense id: en-when_you_mess_with_the_bull,_you_get_the_horns-en-proverb-A3cmB9NM Categories (other): English proverbs

Download JSON data for when you mess with the bull, you get the horns meaning in English (1.1kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Anger",
          "orig": "en:Anger",
          "parents": [
            "Emotions",
            "Mind",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you provoke someone dangerous, you can expect an aggressive reaction."
      ],
      "id": "en-when_you_mess_with_the_bull,_you_get_the_horns-en-proverb-A3cmB9NM",
      "links": [
        [
          "provoke",
          "provoke"
        ],
        [
          "aggressive",
          "aggressive"
        ],
        [
          "reaction",
          "reaction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) If you provoke someone dangerous, you can expect an aggressive reaction."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "poke the bear"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "if you mess with the bull, you get the horns"
        },
        {
          "word": "mess with the bull, get the horns"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "poke the bear"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "en:Anger"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you provoke someone dangerous, you can expect an aggressive reaction."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "provoke",
          "provoke"
        ],
        [
          "aggressive",
          "aggressive"
        ],
        [
          "reaction",
          "reaction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) If you provoke someone dangerous, you can expect an aggressive reaction."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "if you mess with the bull, you get the horns"
    },
    {
      "word": "mess with the bull, get the horns"
    }
  ],
  "word": "when you mess with the bull, you get the horns"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (0b52755 and 5cb0836). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.