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
Maxine	mak-SEEN	English
Rakel	RAH-kel (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish)	Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic
Haruki	hah-ṙoo-kee	Japanese
Servius	SER-wi-uws	Ancient Roman
Fanni	FAHN-nee (Finnish), FAWN-nee (Hungarian)	Finnish, Hungarian
Sammie	SAM-ee	English