bit between one's teeth meaning: definition, quotations

bit between one's teeth

noun

Complete control of a situation; a stance that cannot be controlled or restrained by anyone else.

If he was to get the bit between his teeth after he had got ordained and bought his living, he would play more pranks than ever he, Theobald, had done.1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh:
Unruly clients might take the bit between their teeth and threaten to drag their patron into the fray.1991, Stephen Kirby, Nick Hooper, The Cost of Peace: Assessing Europe's Security Options, →ISBN, page 11:

2 more examples

Rebkah Rahskail probably wasn't, and neither was her cousin, Dragon Hill, but they might find themselves pulled into an adventure if the others got the bit between their teeth.2012, David Weber, Midst Toil and Tribulation, →ISBN:
As for taking the bit between his teeth, Sir Raffle, I do not think that any man was ever more obedient, perhaps I should say more submissive, than I have been. But there must be a limit to everything.'2014, Anthony Trollope, Helen Small, The Last Chronicle of Barset: The Chronicles of Barsetshire, →ISBN:

A large degree of focus and commitment to a task.

The upheaval in the creative unions seems to have gone further than expected and the forces for renewal took the bit between their teeth — to such an extent that the writers' congress in June of the same year would follow more staid formulas and attempt more of a compromise between the old and the new, as compared to the Fifth Congress of the Filmmakers' Union in May, where the old guard of film directors had been eliminated (Lev Kulidshanov, Vladimir Naumov, and Sergei Bondarchuk).1991, Roy Medvedev, Giulietto Chiesa, Time of Change: An Insider's View of Russia's Transformation, →ISBN, page 13:
When my father had the bit between his teeth he would work all day and half the night, barely stopping to eat, snapping at anyone who interrupted him.2010, Helen Grant, The Glass Demon, →ISBN:

1 more example

Soon, however, he took the bit between his teeth and wrote and wrote. Work was therapy; by the time the memoirs were published he had recovered his self-confidence.2015, Martin van Creveld, Moshe Dayan, →ISBN:

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bit, between, teeth.

Some fellow British travellers at Xian, who own horses and therefore understand equine tack, pointed out — when I asked about the authenticity of the replicas — that the horses could not possibly have coped with the bit between their teeth (as they were shown) for long.2004, Maurice Cotterell, The Terracotta Warriors: The Secret Codes of the Emperor's Army, →ISBN:
His eyebrows drew together, his hand found his pipe. He put the bit between his teeth and then he could think better, could think almost as well as when he had the strap of his accordion on his shoulder and his hands on the keys.2009, Geoffrey Homes, No Hands on the Clock, →ISBN, page 123:

Related terms: bite the bullet, grit one's teeth, hold the reins, take the bull by the horns