bit between one's teeth

Definitions

1. 1

   Complete control of a situation

   Complete control of a situation; a stance that cannot be controlled or restrained by anyone else.

   • If he was to get the bit between his teeth after he had got ordained and bought his living, he would play more pranks than ever he, Theobald, had done.
   • Unruly clients might take the bit between their teeth and threaten to drag their patron into the fray.
   • Rebkah Rahskail probably wasn't, and neither was her cousin, Dragon Hill, but they might find themselves pulled into an adventure if the others got the bit between their teeth.
2. 2

   A large degree of focus and commitment to a task.

   • When my father had the bit between his teeth he would work all day and half the night, barely stopping to eat, snapping at anyone who interrupted him.
   • Soon, however, he took the bit between his teeth and wrote and wrote. Work was therapy; by the time the memoirs were published he had recovered his self-confidence.
3. 3

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bit, between, teeth.

   • His eyebrows drew together, his hand found his pipe. He put the bit 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.

The neighborhood