English · Idiom Candidate

one's bark is worse than one's bite

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Someone is less harmful than they seem to be.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

người đó ít gây hại hơn so với vẻ ngoài

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a dog's bark vs its bite

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The new boss seems intimidating, but one's bark is worse than one's bite.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. 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 “one's bark is worse than one's bite” mean?

Someone is less harmful than they seem to be. Literally: a dog's bark vs its bite

Is “one's bark is worse than one's bite” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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