Also: Snap someone’s head off
Meaning of Idiom ‘To Bite Someone’s Head Off’
To bite someone’s head off means to reply or speak to someone in a very sharp and angry way; to scold harshly. 1Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.,2Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,3Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995.
Examples Of Use
“I know you had a bad day but you don’t have to bite my head off. All I said was hello!”
“I asked Sabrina when she wanted to leave in the morning and she bit my head off. I think she can get a ride from someone else!”
Origin
This idiom derived from a much older idiom, dating from the 1500’s, bite someone’s nose off. The present idiom has been used since the mid-1900s, and the variant snap someone’s head off rarely used, since at least 1886. 2
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More Idioms Starting with B
More Bite Idioms
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More Head Idioms
- Hard-Headed
- Running Around Like a Chicken With its Head Cut Off
- Off the Top Of My Head
- Hit the Nail On the Head
- Head Of The Class
More Off Idioms
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Sources
| 1. | ↲ | Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010. |
| 2. | ↲ | Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. |
| 3. | ↲ | Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995. |