Biting the bit, heard by Christina in Oakland on the BBC in a political story, may overlap with champing at the bit, meaning eager or raring to go. Horse tack suggests another possible shade in meaning. A horse that bites hard or gnashes at the bit may be anxious or resisting the rider’s control, while gentle nibbling can signal relaxation. In political use, the phrase could suggest either impatience to get moving or a willful pull against restraint, depending on context. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Biting the Bit” Can Mean Raring to Go or Out of Control”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Christina from Oakland.
Hi, Christina. Oakland, California?
Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. Yeah, Oakland, California. Of course.
Of course.
Of course. The one and only O-Town. Welcome to the show.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
So, I get a lot of my news by listening to the BBC, and I recently heard one of the newscasters saying that some politician or other was biting the bit for, you know, whatever upcoming campaign or something.
And I’m familiar with the expression chomping at the bit to mean like, oh, anxiety or anxiousness or like really like getting to go, I guess.
And I used to ride horses and like when your horse is just like nibbling the bit, it can be a good thing.
But if they get really obsessive about it, it can be a very bad thing and it can be a sign of anxiety.
And so I get where the phrase comes from and I just like never heard it other than chomping at the bit.
Oh, okay.
And did it sound like from the show that you were listening to that the biting of the bit had the same meaning, or was there something else happening there?
It did seem to have the same meaning.
Biting of the bit.
There’s a larger variation than I entirely missed it.
So if a horse takes the bit in its mouth, is there an element of it being willful, of it doing its own thing, taking control from the rider?
I’ve had horses stick their tongues under the bit, and that’s taking control from the rider.
But more I think like you put the bit in their mouth, you put it on with the bridle, and that’s great, and that’s what you’re supposed to do.
And then sometimes the horse will chew the bit, right?
And if they’re sort of like slowly nibbling on it, like that’s fine, and that almost sometimes indicates relaxation.
But if they start like really chomping at it and start really like gnashing their teeth, that’s a sign of anxiety, and that’s like obviously you’re not going to get the training results that you want if a horse has really worked up and anxious.
Okay. My sense of biting at the bit is that they’re doing something willfully and they’re trying to wrest control from the rider.
I don’t know if that’s the context that you heard there.
Okay. I mean, that could easily be. The context was political, so I might have just, like, heard biting the bit, interpreted it as chomping at the bit, and just, like, misunderstood the story.
Christina, I don’t know if we’ve helped you or not. You sound like more of an expert on horses.
Oh, I don’t know. But you’re saying that there’s a difference between biting the bit and chomping at the bit. I had no idea.
Well, it sounds like there’s a couple things happening here.
One possible interpretation is it means that they’re raring to go, just can’t wait to get out and hit the track and go full speed.
And the other one is that they are out of control, that they have taken control away from the writer.
I don’t have the show on my phone anymore.
I go back and listen to it and try to figure out the context.
But I’ll listen for it in the future.
Yeah, keep an ear out and let us know if you hear it again.
Thanks, Christina.
All right.
Thank you so much.
I had a great time.
All right.
Thanks, Christina.
Bye-bye.
