The English idiom, don’t poke the bear, means “don’t annoy a person who has the ability to hurt you.”
Bears are known as dangerous creatures (although also beautiful and gentle creatures when not provoked). We also know that bears normally sleep through the winter, so we can imagine finding a bear asleep in the forest. At this time, a person could poke the bear, such as with a stick. And the bear might wake up angry and hurt the person who poked them.
The bear is any person (or organization) who can hurt you, if you bother them, but will probably not hurt you, if you do not disturb them—such as your boss. Therefore, the bear in this phrase is a person who has the power to hurt you, but will probably not hurt you, unless you annoy them.
Poking the bear might mean, for example, asking your boss for a day off work, during a busy time. Or we might say this when an American politician wants to visit Taiwan, which makes China angry. China would be the bear. And visiting Taiwan would be “poking the bear.” That would be one interpretation of this act.
In general, this phrase is taken as good advice: don’t provoke a person who might react badly; don’t bother an irritable person—or a person with an anger problem, especially if they have authority and power that can directly affect you!
The phrase don’t poke the bear first became popular during the 1900s but its origin is unknown.
More Examples of “Don’t Poke the Bear” in a Sentence
- Threatened people generally don’t poke the bear coming at them with obscene hand signs.
- Simply put, this may not be the right time to poke the bear.
- In the meantime, there’s no particular reason to poke the bear.
- You probably don’t want to poke the bear so to speak before finals.
- While oat milk might trip off the tongue of most, Liam was very careful not to poke that bear.