to bell the cat

Дата публикации: Jun 21, 2016 5:30:50 PM

bell the cat

To perform a daring act.

To undertake or agree to perform a risky, dangerous, or impossible job or task. It comes from a fable (often and likely incorrectly attributed to Aesop) called "Belling the Cat," in which a group of mice decide that one will harness a bell to a murderous cat so that its jingle will warn them of its presence, though none want to take on the dangerous role.

Someone has to bell the cat and tell the boss we aren't going to come in to work on Saturdays anymore.

Who's going to bell the cat and tell mom we wrecked her car?

Gustave Doré's illustration of La Fontaine's fable, c.1868

"Belling the cat" is one of the proverbs illustrated in Pieter Bruegel I's painting Netherlandish Proverbs (1559).