# lick into shape

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/lick-into-shape
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To exert considerable effort to change (someone or something) into a desired state.

## Examples

- I need to lick this messy garden into shape.
- The new coach worked hard to lick the struggling team into shape before the championship.
- After years of neglect, the new manager spent months licking the department into shape to meet the company's rigorous standards.

## Origin

The idiom derives from a medieval belief regarding the gestation of bears. It was long maintained that bear cubs were born as indistinct, shapeless lumps of flesh, and that the mother was required to literally lick the whelps into the proper form of a bear. The tongue acted as a sculptor's tool, refining the raw material of the birth into a recognisable creature. Robert Burton utilised the imagery in the 1624 second edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy to describe the state of his writing. He lamented that he lacked the leisure and the assistance of Amanuenses to properly revise his work, noting he was enforced to bring forth a confused lump. Lacking the time to lick the Tract into form as a Bear doth her young ones, he published the text in its initial, unrefined state.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.