a red flag to a bull



a red flag to a bull

A willfully infuriating or aggravating provocation; something that incites great anger or annoyance. An allusion to matadors' practice of waving red flags at a bull during a bullfight, though the color of the flag actually makes no difference to the animal. John's gone to gloat about his success over his brother, which is a red flag to a bull if I've ever seen one. You do realize that bringing your new girlfriend to your ex-wife's house is like a red flag to a bull, right?
See also: bull, flag, red

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Hippolytos-Greek Mythology, Ancient Greek
Jed[dʒed]
Rashmi-Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil
Tzillah-Biblical Hebrew
Lois (2)LOISGalician
Issur-Yiddish