his bark is worse than his bite. (17th century)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Someone is less harmful than they seem to be.
Literally: a dog's bark vs. its bite
Examples
He yelled at me, but his bark is worse than his bite.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “his bark is worse than his bite. (17th century)” mean?
Someone is less harmful than they seem to be. Literally: a dog's bark vs. its bite
Is “his bark is worse than his bite. (17th century)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.