take the bull by the horns

Meaning: (idiomatic)Todeal witha matter in adirectmanner, especially toconfrontadifficultyrather thanavoidit.1828May,Sir Walter Scott,The Journal of Sir Walter Scott:Wordsworth has a system which disposes him totake the bull by the hornsand offend public taste.1912,Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 4, inHocken and Hunken:"Then why couldn' yetake the bull by the hornsan' march in by the front door?"1920,P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 4, inThe Coming of Bill:[H]e was ready totake the bull by the hornsand pay for his meal himself.1950December 4, “The Nation: Between Friends”, inTime:In Korea General MacArthurtook the bull by the hornsand threw seven divisions into an all-out drive to clear North Korea.2002May 16,Selena Roberts, “Tennis: Healthy Morariu Expects to Return to Court”, inNew York Times, retrieved2 August 2011:"Should I tell her? Should I send someone else?" he said yesterday. "Itook the bull by the horns. I gave her the diagnosis. It was the most difficult time of my life."

Examples:

EN: I decided to take the bull by the horns.
ES: Decidí coger el toro por los cuernos.
ES: Decidí coger al toro por los cuernos.
EN: We intend to take the bull by the horns and decasualise the employers.
ES: Nos proponemos tomar al toro por las astas y prescindir de los patrones.
EN: Well, now, I'll take the bull by the horns.
ES: Ahora cogeré el toro por los cuernos.
EN: He'll keep us out till we take the bull by the horns... And start fighting fire with fire.
ES: Nos mantendrá fuera hasta que tomemos al toro por los cuernos y empecemos a pelear.
EN: Okay, men, it's time to take the bull by the horns!
ES: Bien, hombres, es hora de coger el toro por los cuernos.
EN: Michael, you may now take the bull by the horns, as they say.
ES: Michael,ya puedes agarrar al toro por los cuernos.
EN: It's time to take the bull by the horns!
ES: ¡Acaba con él!
EN: It's up to you to take the bull by the horns. Make something happen.
ES: Coge el toro por los cuernos, toma la iniciativa.
EN: Grasp the nettle, take the bull by the horns?
ES: ¿Tomar el mando, el toro por los cuernos?
EN: You can't take the bull by the horns if you're grasping the nettle.
ES: Pero no puede coger los cuernos si tiene el mando en la mano.
EN: With respect, sir, if you were to take the bull by the horns and inform your father that you were in New York, not Colorado...
ES: Con el debido respeto, señor, si cogiera el toro por los cuernos e informara a su padre que está en Nueva York, no en Colorado...
EN: Sometimes you got to take the bull by the horns!
ES: Hay que agarrar al toro por los cuernos.
EN: You seemed so eager to go down there and take the bull by the horns.
ES: Parecías entusiasmado con ir y coger el toro por los cuernos.
EN: Well, let's take the bull by the horns, then.
ES: Bueno, al toro por las astas.
EN: Felix, I have been asking Mr Broune's advice and he agrees, as I do, that it might be best to take the bull by the horns.
ES: Felix, le he pedido consejo a Mr. Broune y está de acuerdo, como yo, que sería mejor coger el toro por los cuernos.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).