twisting the lion's tail
Preserved but no longer current.
Seeing how far the "Britishers" will bear provocation. "To give the lion's tail another twist" is to tax the British forbearance a little further. The nation will put up with a deal rather than resort to the arbitration of arms.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “twisting the lion's tail” mean?
Seeing how far the "Britishers" will bear provocation. "To give the lion's tail another twist" is to tax the British forbearance a little further. The nation will put up with a deal rather than resort to the arbitration of arms.
Is “twisting the lion's tail” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.