bark is worse than one's bite, one's

A person seems more hostile or aggressive than is the case, as in Dad sounds very grouchy in the morning, but his bark's worse than his bite. This phrase was a proverb by the mid-1600s.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
DĂNuȚ	də-NOOTS	Romanian
Loviisa	LO-vee:-sah	Finnish
Adelina	ah-de-LEE-nah (Italian), ah-dhe-LEE-nah (Spanish)	Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, German, Bulgarian, Ancient Germanic (Latinized)
Newman	['nju:mən]
Agneta	ahng-NE-tah	Swedish
Murchadh	-	Irish, Scottish