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
Bhaskara	-	Hinduism
Nikomedes	-	Ancient Greek
Nikifor	-	Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian
Ladislaus	LAD-i-slaws (English)	History
Gemariah	gem-ə-RIE-ə (English)	Biblical
Velvel	-	Yiddish