poke the bear

verb

To deliberately aggravate somebody, especially somebody in a position of power or authority.

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Meanings

verbpoke the bear (third-person singular simple present pokes the bear, present participle poking the bear, simple past and past participle poked the bear)

present singular third person pokes the bear · participle present poking the bear · participle past poked the bear · past poked the bear

  1. USidiomaticTo deliberately aggravate somebody, especially somebody in a position of power or authority.

    Throughout my training I witnessed several doctors run out of town because their honesty and outspokenness began to poke the bear.

    2012, Marty Makary, Unaccountable, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 17
    1 more example

    His advice to Zuckerberg, the Times later reported, was “Don’t poke the bear”—avoid incurring the wrath of Trump and his supporters.

    2020 October 12, Andrew Marantz, “Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 01 Nov 2020
  2. idiomaticslangTo deliberately anger Russia or the Russian government.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
ruffle some feathers

Origin

The second sense refers to the use of bears to represent Russia, as a shortening of the idiom "poke the Russian bear" (to anger or threaten Russia and start a war with Russia).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

poke the bear. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poke%20the%20bear

MLA

“poke the bear.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poke%20the%20bear. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “poke the bear,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poke%20the%20bear.

Source: poke the bear on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.