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The Persian proverb to play with the tail of a lion is used informally to say that a certain situation is very dangerous. By saying it, we alert the listener that the act which they are about to do is likely to result in their death.

Example: Driving too rapidly in a busy road is like [playing with the tail of a lion.]

Is there a proverb that would express the same thing in English?

I have already heard the expression to play with fire, but it doesn't quite work because the Persian proverb has a bit of a chiding tone- the speaker wants both to alarm and ridicule the listener. The aim is to say that the act is at the same time dangerous and foolish.

Heartspring
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kazhvan
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    Aren't you the same person who asked about the cow with the white forehead? You must really like persian proverbs. – Pharap Aug 09 '17 at 19:54
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    As a matter a fact , I am translating a short story from Persian into English .Therefore I have to ask many question to find the best equivalent to Persian proverbs that I come across. Besides , Persian is a poetical language in which you can find many proverbs , metaphors , idioms. – kazhvan Aug 09 '17 at 20:07
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    I didn't say it was a bad thing, it's just unusual to have such similar questions crop up in such a short space of time (And for both to end up on the 'hot network questions' list). – Pharap Aug 09 '17 at 20:15
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    The questions related to proverbs and expressions are always popular , for this reason I have decided to ask only such questions :) ha!ha!ha – kazhvan Aug 09 '17 at 20:21
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    Are you wanting to keep the proverbs as close to the original (in both meaning and flavor)? "Grab the lion by the tail" would probably get the meaning across with minimal change to the text. – Michael Richardson Aug 09 '17 at 20:37
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    I don't know how important it is to arrive at a commonly used English phrase. If all you really need is to convey the meaning and the "feel" to a native English speaker, then the direct (naive) translation of the Persian phrase is already suitable. – John Y Aug 09 '17 at 21:32
  • @JOHN So , do you think that the native reader understand the story behind that at the first glance? – kazhvan Aug 09 '17 at 21:36
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    @kazhvan - Absolutely. – John Y Aug 09 '17 at 21:52
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    Just as an anecdotal curiosity: in certain countries you say pulling the lion's whiskers. – Matsmath Aug 10 '17 at 12:19
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    You have receive many good answers. But any metaphor indicating eminent danger would work. One possibility: BASE jumping without a chute. – jxh Aug 10 '17 at 18:04
  • @MichaelRichardson I don’t think that would work so well. It’s too similar to “grab/take the bull by the horns”, which has an entirely different meaning. The grabbing bit makes it intentional and confrontational, like you’re not only playing with fire, but knowingly doing something you know is dangerous, but in a way that makes it look like you know what you’re doing and you’re facing the danger head-on. Playing with a lion’s tail feels like quite a different thing to me. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 13 '17 at 10:27
  • Dear Kahzvan: which proverb has the humorous connotation - the Persian or the "Playing with Fire" one? "Playing with fire", although thoroughly beclichéed, is usually meant very earnestly and not meant to make fun of the player: it usually also implies the player is threatened by side effects that they may not have thought of or are foolhardishly ignoring - "watch out" is the undertext that goes with it. – Selene Routley Aug 14 '17 at 03:19
  • Note that the almost identical sounding "to have a tiger by the tail" in English means something related but distinct, that what you think you have control over is actually rather volatile. Sure it could easily be dangerous but the emphasis is on out of control. – Mitch Aug 16 '17 at 12:58
  • The meaning of the direct translation is immediately evident and in my opinion better than anything English has to offer. – Al Maki Jun 14 '21 at 02:01

22 Answers22

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Playing with fire is similar. However, it implies only that the activity is highly dangerous (or foolish), but not necessary lethal.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/play_with_fire

There is also sailing close to the wind - which means taking unnecessary risks. I'd guess this is also less serious than the OP's example.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sail-close-to-the-wind

If someone is really endangering their life, we'd say they're dicing with death

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dice_with_death

ArchContrarian
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  • +1. Here's a dictionary entry you can use in your answer to provide some independent support for your answer. – Lawrence Aug 09 '17 at 16:12
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    Oh, and I forgot 'skating on thin ice' ... which is also in the 'stupid, but not Darwin Awards stupid' category – ArchContrarian Aug 09 '17 at 16:12
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    I would say "playing with matches" is a variant of this, which carries the connotation of someone doing something more dangerous than he appreciates (which makes the situation effectively more dangerous than if he understood the dangers and was carefully trying to avoid them). – Monty Harder Aug 09 '17 at 22:06
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    "Sailing close to the wind" tends to have an additional connotation of a calculated risk for expediency's sake - when you are actually sailing "close to the wind" you are travelling faster. – caf Aug 11 '17 at 06:03
  • @caf On an actual sailboat, the fastest speed is in a downwind direction (not quite a dead run); for any other point of sail, the closer to the wind you sail the slower your speed. Of course the direction of travel also changes as the boat's heading changes, which is where the advantages (and risks) of sailing close to the wind come into play. – David K Aug 11 '17 at 12:22
  • https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/255563/expressions-meaning-to-risk-death – talrnu Aug 11 '17 at 20:26
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    "dicing with death"? I never heard that one, though I have heard "flirting with death". – David Z Aug 13 '17 at 03:24
  • @DavidK No, most modern boats are faster on a beam reach than straight downwind: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/186515/why-is-a-beam-reach-the-fastest-point-of-sail-on-modern-sailboats – Brian McCutchon Aug 14 '17 at 06:46
  • @BrianMcCutchon Multiple answers on the page you linked made the same point I was trying to make: the fastest point of sail of a monohull sailboat in a strong wind is not close to the wind at all; it is a broad reach--as I said, not a dead run, but in a downwind direction. Apparently the beam reach is fastest for a catamaran, which is news to me, but that's still hardly what most sailors would call close to the wind. – David K Aug 14 '17 at 11:07
  • @DavidZ"dicing with death" == gambling with death. Well known phrase in Australian English, alliteration for the win. Google ngrams has it about equal to flirting with death. – Tim Richardson Aug 14 '17 at 12:32
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    Sailing close to the wind is risky if you are a sail-driven warship; too close to the wind, and you come to halt, bad news if someone is chasing you. So the risk is not going too fast, the opposite: losing all speed. Off to the library for you, to find Master & Commander. Twenty books later, you'll know all about sailing close to the wind :) – Tim Richardson Aug 14 '17 at 12:35
  • I've heard "dance with death" on rare occasion (US English, though I think I got it from books) – Izkata Aug 15 '17 at 03:57
  • Another aspect of "sailing close to the wind", is that in actual practice the sailors 'feel' like they're making great progress because of the higher apparent wind coming at them and pitching into wavefronts faster ... when in fact there can be little speed over ground. So it can be a bit foolish, apart form the risk of ending up 'in irons' (Although I'm sure that's not the origin of the term... @TR's naval explanation makes perfect sense) – ArchContrarian Sep 07 '17 at 14:45
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Don't poke the bear / Poking the bear

Urban Dictionary : A phrase of warning used to prevent oneself or others from asking or doing something that might provoke a negative response from someone or something else.

kazhvan
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Max
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    Thank you . it is the first time that I hear this expression . – kazhvan Aug 09 '17 at 19:26
  • @kazhvan no problem, I'm surprised you haven't heard it before, it's a very common english expression – Max Aug 09 '17 at 19:27
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    @kazhvan I'm native English (i.e. from England) and have never heard this before either. I think this might be an American saying (we don't get many bears in Britain). – Pharap Aug 09 '17 at 19:56
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    I'm a native American English speaker, and I'm actually not familiar with this phrase either. Maybe it's regional. But even though I have never heard it before, the meaning is clear. The same can be said of "playing with the lion's tail". There is more than enough information embedded in each word that additional explanation is not necessary. – John Y Aug 09 '17 at 21:18
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    "Poking the bear" can also have the political meaning of provoking Russia. – Chris Cudmore Aug 09 '17 at 22:30
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    This was definitely common in the midwest, where I grew up. – Alex Reinking Aug 09 '17 at 22:31
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    (Just because we're all adding data points here...) Grew up in the PNW and totally familiar with this phrase. – Eric Lagergren Aug 10 '17 at 01:13
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    I'm from the northeast U.S., and I'm familiar with this expression (but I'm a bookworm, so that may not prove much). To me it connotes finding a hibernating bear in a cave, and poking it with a stick. I don't actually know how dangerous that is, but I am content in my ignorance. – Beta Aug 10 '17 at 01:36
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    Another PNW ("Pacific Northwest" - Oregon & Washington) native who grew up with this phrase. I also always imagined that the bear is hibernating. He sleeps and sleep, so it seems safe to pester him. Then one time you poke him too hard and wake him up. He has a nice little snack and goes back to bed with you in his belly. – Adam Aug 10 '17 at 18:54
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    This was the first phrase I thought of, but I'm from Pennsylvania, which is basically midwest. – Michael Aug 10 '17 at 19:37
  • Oddly enough, I don't recall ever hearing this phrase used (New Zealand) but I have used it myself. I guess it's just a very obvious construction. – Harry Johnston Aug 10 '17 at 23:13
  • KY here, common phrase. – Tony Ennis Aug 11 '17 at 01:36
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    Can’t think of any time I’ve heard it (mostly Northeast US, some time in California), but it’s perfectly understandable. – KRyan Aug 11 '17 at 14:04
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    Note the bear is usually related to a specific person/group/nation, so would not fit the example well (driving too fast). The common useage is meant to say don't annoy/prod someone into causing you problems. – Adam Martin Aug 11 '17 at 23:06
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    Another alternative to this is a 'hornets nest'. E.g. poking, kicking, stirring up the hornet's nest, which will get you stung by an angry swarm. – TylerH Aug 12 '17 at 14:16
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I honestly think that playing with a lion's tail is perfectly acceptable. Colorful, descriptive English is rife with fun similes like that.

Skating on thin ice is like what you are looking for, but I think it misses the absurdity of playing with the lion's tail and replaces it with complacent obliviousness to one's predicament. For a similar reason, I think that playing with fire is also a little off, in that it connotes ignorant defiance of danger rather than bravado.

A more mundane, but commonly used phrase is taking one's life into their own hands. It generally means that someone will put his/herself into a dangerous situation where their own actions or skill are the only thing that will allow them to escape unscathed. I think this fits your example fairly well - Driving too rapidly on a busy road is like taking your life into your own hands.

BlackThorn
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    "Tweak the lion's tail" is a recognized idiom in English. – Ex Umbris Aug 10 '17 at 05:50
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    "Tweak the lion's tail" is not a recognized idiom in English. (Let's see which comment gets more upvotes. ;)) – Quuxplusone Aug 10 '17 at 20:11
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    "Skating on thin ice" brings to mind very serious situations, with no humour involved, and doesn't necessarily fit all dangerous situations. For example, if someone liked to do parkour on a rooftop, you wouldn't use that phrase; "taking one's life into one's own hands" would be more appropriate. However if a boss wanted to warn one of his employees that he was dangerously close to being fired, the boss might say, "You're skating on very thin ice here mate, I'd be careful about what I say if I were you." I think this is what you were saying already, @TBear, but I wanted to emphasize this :) – Clonkex Aug 11 '17 at 04:10
  • @ExUmbris, "twist the lion's tail" specifically meant to provoke the British – Separatrix Aug 11 '17 at 07:41
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    I'm not sure about the typical Persian climate, but I imagine there's not much ice to speak of. So "skating on thin ice", while otherwise a perfectly valid answer, might not be that suitable in this particular context. – ZeroOne Aug 11 '17 at 17:39
  • @ZeroOne It can get to minus 22 F in Hamadan. (minus 30 C) – ab2 Aug 11 '17 at 17:58
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    @ab2 Oh, wow. I stand corrected then, thank you! But still, do they go skating when it's freezing?? – ZeroOne Aug 11 '17 at 18:41
  • @ZeroOne I don't know! I live in Virginia and have never been to Iran. – ab2 Aug 11 '17 at 18:43
  • @Quuxplusone If some people vote up "recognize" then it is recognized by them. The existence of recognition is not a matter of getting the most votes; either it gets some votes or it doesn't. It looks like it's recognized enough that the claim is upheld (it might be regional, for example -- better known in some places that others). – Glen_b Aug 13 '17 at 06:51
  • @Glen_b The fact that the comment was written at all entails that it’s a recognised idiom in English, by the commenter. I think we can safely assume that “recognised” here means “commonly recognised”, though. Googling it, I get only about 30 hits for “tweaking the lion’s tail”, while I get more than 5,000 for “twisting the lion’s tail”. This Ngram shows that, while the ‘tweak’ version had a slight peak around WWII (cf. Separatrix’ comment), the ‘twist’ version has always been far more common. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 13 '17 at 10:35
  • @Janus Yes; my intent was "recognized by more than one person" – Glen_b Aug 13 '17 at 10:51
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tickling the dragon's tail; Wikipedia, Louis Slotin.

Louis Slotin was a physicist on the Manhattan Project who died in 1946 nine days after his screwdriver slipped in the course of a criticality experiment.

Criticality testing involved bringing masses of fissile materials to near-critical levels to establish their critical mass values. Scientists referred to this flirting with the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction as "tickling the dragon's tail", based on a remark by physicist Richard Feynman, who compared the experiments to "tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon".

This phrase may be familiar only to physicists and nuclear engineers, but to them the picture of assembling by hand the elements of of a nuclear critical mass, and stopping just short of criticality, is the ultimate game of chicken.

See also Physics Stack Exchange, https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/148569/why-did-tickling-the-dragons-tail-by-louis-slotin-not-cause-an-explosion, Why did “tickling the dragons tail” by Louis Slotin not cause an explosion?

ab2
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    Very interesting! However, I don't think it's commonly used by the general public. – 0xFEE1DEAD Aug 09 '17 at 20:00
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    On the other hand it is very close and stands a decent chance of being understood once looked up. – Joshua Aug 09 '17 at 20:56
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    @Joshua - You don't have to look it up to understand it. Just about any English speaker will know what a dragon is, and will immediately recognize that it's not a good idea to tickle its tail. Of course, the same can be said of playing with a lion's tail. – John Y Aug 09 '17 at 21:24
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    Pulling or tickling the [Insert dangerous creature]'s tail is widely recognized. The specific creature varies from place to place. – barbecue Aug 10 '17 at 01:07
  • I have never heard this expression before, so I can't see how it is any better than the original playing with a lion's tail. Sure, you may understand it, but it is still unfamiliar. If this is idiomatic, it appears to refer specifically to the dangers of atomic energy. – BlackThorn Aug 11 '17 at 15:20
  • this is a phrase used once by Someone. the answer has no connection to "figures of speech in English" – Fattie Aug 12 '17 at 00:42
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    JK Rowling (a British author) used this Latin motto for the school appearing in her Harry Potter series, Hogwarts: Draco dormiens numquam titillandus (“A sleeping dragon should never be tickled.”) – chirlu Aug 12 '17 at 12:58
  • @chirlu Thanks for this info! May I add this as a footnote, crediting you? See also https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/10658/whats-the-point-of-the-hogwarts-motto, the transcript of a interview which explains how she came up with the motto. – ab2 Aug 12 '17 at 21:40
  • @ab2: Absolutely, feel free to use it. – chirlu Aug 13 '17 at 01:41
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    This is an excellent example: I was going to given it myself. FYI (if you're not already aware of it): ts full meaning in context implies a few things that are further to and a little different from the OP's phrase. Firstly, it was not meant as a deterring warning: its originator Richard Feynman and his colleagues felt very much that the scientists had to find a way forward whatever the danger. Secondly, he was referring to a specific experiment, and emphasizing that the experiment should only "tickle" yet not "wake" the dragon. The scientists had to check whether there were indeed a dragon .. – Selene Routley Aug 14 '17 at 03:36
  • ... there and they needed some "vital statistics" of his living being to confirm their theoretically calculated neutron capture cross sections. It should also be emphasized that at no time was there any danger of an explosion, as I explain in the answer to the Physics SE question you linked. The experiment referred to involved dropping a subcritical uranium slug through a hole in a uranium disk, such that the falling block would fleetingly become critical allowing measurement by nearby instruments. So the experiment would (1) automatically shut itself off and (2) is simple enough for remote .. – Selene Routley Aug 14 '17 at 03:41
  • ... control: criticality leads to a lethal pulse of neutrons, and there was always the chance that the slug might swiftly melt and fuse itself to the ring, leading to a sustained criticality - relaxation cycle described in my answer - or more likely the whole lot would melt and end up as a spread out, subcritical but nightmarish pool on the floor. I don't know what would have happenned would the latter have come to pass: I suspect that the lab in question might have to be indefinitely isolated. These days you would send in a sacrificial robot to clean up - the amount of waste would be ... – Selene Routley Aug 14 '17 at 03:46
  • ... very small compared to the power station disasters that have happenned since. – Selene Routley Aug 14 '17 at 03:46
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    There's a PBS documentary titled "Uranium - Twisting the Dragon's Tail" – Nick T Aug 14 '17 at 21:49
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Dancing with the devil.

My father was a policeman who used this expression all the time to describe the behavior of some of his "clients". Particularly the ones who almost got themselves killed doing stupid things.

LIN C
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The most simple expression I know of for this is to tempt fate

If you tempt fate or providence by doing something, you take a silly risk by doing it and depend too much on your good luck:

Cambridge Dictionary

So, as per your example:

Driving too rapidly in a busy road is tempting fate

SGR
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I like the other answers here, but the playful connotation in the OP makes the question a bit tricky. I'll submit flirting with disaster as another option.

It still emphasizes the danger much moreso than the playfulness, but flirting is a pretty light and casual activity. It's also a more modern and less formal version of courting disaster, which makes it feel a little less focused on the danger (to me).

EDIT: Responding to a request for references, I looked up the phrases on Google's NGram viewer and found my assertion that "flirting with disaster" is more modern was pretty undercut! At least with regard to books published in English between 1800 and 2008 or so.

NGram Viewer

I still say that flirting with disaster is more common in speech, if nothing else, if only because flirting is in common modern use and courting is much less common. I also think that the Molly Hatchet song, Flirting with Disaster (released 1979) has probably been driving a lot of my familiarity with the phrase.

Upper_Case
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To fly too close to the sun, in reference to the Greek myth of Icarus is another option. It has more of a humorous connotation of foolishness than to play with fire. However, it can also connote ambitiousness or greediness which may not be appropriate.

John Ward
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    AFAIK, "flying too close to the sun" usually implies the person doing it is too proud, rather than foolish. The myth of Icarus is generally interpreted as a warning against hubris. – The Photon Aug 11 '17 at 16:41
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An idiomatic expression which mirrors the lion metaphor and comes close is: ride a tiger

TFD(idioms):

ride a tiger

To find yourself in a precarious situation.
The phrase comes from “He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.” Which is to say, once you find yourself in a dangerous circumstance, getting out of it can be even more potentially hazardous, whether to your health or your career.

Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price

alwayslearning
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    Also: "to have a tiger by the tail", which I think is a more modern version. – David Aldridge Aug 09 '17 at 16:58
  • I used to put a tiger in my tank, but then Esso got engulfed by ExxonMobil. Nice tails they had too: https://www.google.com/search?q=esso+tiger+tail&num=20&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwia4b3v58rVAhUL3YMKHfe9Cz0Q_AUICygC&biw=1122&bih=619 – Wayfaring Stranger Aug 09 '17 at 18:47
  • I haven't heard of this but would understand it based on context. – Jordan.J.D Aug 09 '17 at 19:24
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    "Riding a tiger" has the additional implication of "how do you plan to stop?", which the Persian expression doesn't have. – Mark Aug 09 '17 at 22:19
  • I've heard tiger-related expressions (perhaps something like "poking a sleeping tiger") used metaphorically when extracting rocks from the bottom of a huge pile (in cave exploration). For some reason, the expression with a tiger feels less "foreign" than the same expression with a lion - I wonder if this is due to the large Indian influence on English compared to the much smaller influence from Africa? – Toby Speight Aug 10 '17 at 09:50
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There's a very similar phrase, "to beard the lion" (sometimes expanded with "in his den")

Confront a danger, take a risk, as in I went straight to my boss, bearding the lion

Damien_The_Unbeliever
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    I would love to understand the downvote. I don't post on here often, but when I saw it on HNQs, I visited, and was surprised that there was no reference to bearding the lion. If there had been an existing (more thorough) answer using that phrase I would have instead voted for it. As it was, I saw an unexpected (for me) absence so provided a minimal answer myself. – Damien_The_Unbeliever Aug 16 '17 at 16:57
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"Mess with the bull you get the horns." At no point are you in control, of either bull or lion. There are numerous humorous uses of it in popular culture ("The Breakfast Club", "The Pacifier"). Quora had a good write-up for it

Logan
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  • This is a good expression to use, but could you add the definition here, rather than linking to Quora? We want to create answers that are complete in themselves, as stated in the tour – marcellothearcane Aug 10 '17 at 05:00
  • Also: "mess with the cat, you get the claws." Also: "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." All of these are more like what you'd say after the horns/claws have been got or the stupid prize has been won, though. – Quuxplusone Aug 10 '17 at 20:14
  • A variation on this is "seizing the bull by the horns"... the implication being that bulls (and lions and busy traffic) can be managed but that the person is going about it the wrong way. – ssimm Aug 14 '17 at 09:10
5

Jim Croce said it best in "You Don't Mess Around with Jim":

You don't tug on superman's cape

You don't spit into the wind

You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger

And you don't mess around with Jim

It must be said that I've heard "don't piss into the wind" at least as often as "don't spit into the wind," which presumably was sanitized for radio.

Community
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HemiPoweredDrone
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Catch a 'tiger by the tail'. (Something too difficult to manage or cope with. Dictionary.com)

paw88789
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    I don't think this is a good answer. To catch a tiger by a tail is to be in an untenable situation. You have the tiger, and you're safe as long as you can hold it. But you will soon tire and have to let it go, at which point it will attack you. You're completely trapped. Whereas with tickling the lion, you could stop tickling and perchance walk away unharmed. – user1359 Aug 09 '17 at 20:42
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    Upvoted both answer and @user1359's comment - this answer is indeed "wrong", but since it's the most obvious naïve translation, it still needs to be listed here, along with the explanation why it's incorrect. – Dewi Morgan Aug 10 '17 at 01:43
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Dicing with death seems to convey the meaning you want. I have found no definitive derivations but this discussion suggests that it was only written down in the 1940s although the idea of gaming against death is much older.

Alchymist
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to court trouble or courting trouble

Using court as seeming to be asking for circumstances fraught with danger.

Stephen Santa Fe
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Dancing with the Devil (in the pale moonlight).

Belling the cat. (Though used mostly with things left undone.)

Playing with dynamite.

Jousting with edged tools. (Or playing with edged tools.)

ttw
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Late addition to the list, but another idiom that may be relevant to the context is:

Belling the cat

To undertake or agree to perform a risky, dangerous, or impossible job or task. It comes from a fable (often and likely incorrectly attributed to Aesop) called "Belling the Cat," in which a group of mice decide that one will harness a bell to a murderous cat so that its jingle will warn them of its presence, though none want to take on the dangerous role.

Dhruv Saxena
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I believe "poke a tiger with a short stick" comes closest in both meaning and spirit.

On a somewhat related note, it's pretty sad there used to be both tigers and lions in Iran until fairly recently, but both species are now gone.

F.K. Juliano
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More idiomatic than proverbial, but the person has a death wish

mcalex
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Cruising for a bruising

slang

Acting in a way that is likely to result in punishment or harm. Often shortened colloquially as "cruisin' for a bruisin'."

Oh, you're cruising for a bruising if you keep talking to me like that!

Did you hear the way he insulted the boss during our meeting? He's really cruisin' for a bruisin'.

[The Free Dictionary]

user405662
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There already is a very similar idiom, although a fairly rare one:

twisting the lion's tail.

The definition from Collins Dictionary

(American English) to tax the patience of or provoke a person, group, nation, or government, esp. that of Great Britain.

And of course, the lion was chosen as the animal because it is the symbol of the United Kingdom.

Peter Shor
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Poking a sleeping dragon in the eye

Playing with fire

Poke the bear

All can mean the same thing ultimatley

Tomsta
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