If he was to getthe bit between his teeth after he had got ordained and bought his living, he would play more pranks than ever he, Theobald, had done.
1991, Stephen Kirby, Nick Hooper,The Cost of Peace: Assessing Europe's Security Options,→ISBN, page11:
Unruly clients might take thebit between their teeth and threaten to drag their patron into the fray.
2012, David Weber,Midst Toil and Tribulation,→ISBN:
Rebkah Rahskail probably wasn't, and neither was her cousin, Dragon Hill, but they might find themselves pulled into an adventure if the others gotthe bit between their teeth.
2014, Anthony Trollope, Helen Small,The Last Chronicle of Barset: The Chronicles of Barsetshire,→ISBN:
As fortaking 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.'
1991, Roy Medvedev, Giulietto Chiesa,Time of Change: An Insider's View of Russia's Transformation,→ISBN, page13:
The upheaval in the creative unions seems to have gone further than expected and the forces for renewal took thebit 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).
Soon, however, he took thebit between his teeth and wrote and wrote. Work was therapy; by the time the memoirs were published he had recovered his self-confidence.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seebit,between,teeth.
2004, Maurice Cotterell,The Terracotta Warriors: The Secret Codes of the Emperor's Army,→ISBN:
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 thebit between their teeth (as they were shown) for long.
2009, Geoffrey Homes,No Hands on the Clock,→ISBN, page123:
His eyebrows drew together, his hand found his pipe. He put thebit 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.
