Taking the bull by the horns

THE idiomatic expression “taking the bull by the horns” means to grasp the problem head-on and struggle through it. “To confront your problem instead of avoiding them.” The saying stems from the practice of bull-leaping that was practiced on the isle of Crete. It means to take control of the situation.

In the Wild Wild West fashion, cowboys gain control over and overpower a bull, to take it from standing or a threat stance to make it lie on its side. So the idiom means to “grasp the problem head-on, to overpower and overcome, and reduce the problem to something more manageable. That means that you face up squarely and bravely to something troubling.”