# The actual meaning of "bear down"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-actual-meaning-of-bear-down/933326>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 20, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-actual-meaning-of-bear-down/933326 "2021-02-20T03:34:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-actual-meaning-of-bear-down/933326/1 "2021-02-20T03:34:47Z")

</div>

A woman in Alaska took a stroll from the yurt to the, uh, “library”. Taking a seat [turned out to be a bad move](https://news.yahoo.com/alaska-woman-using-outhouse-attacked-050220025.html),

> [@](#):
>
> Her brother heard the screaming and went out to the outhouse, about 150 feet away from the yurt. There, he found Shannon tending to her wound. They at first thought she had been bitten by a squirrel or a mink, or something small.
> 
> Erik brought his headlamp with him to see what it was. “I opened the toilet seat and there’s just a bear face just right there at the level of the toilet seat, just looking right back up through the hole, right at me. I just shut the lid as fast as I could. I said, ‘There’s a bear down there, we got to get out of here now,’ And we ran back to the yurt as fast as we could.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-actual-meaning-of-bear-down/933326/2 "2021-02-20T03:40:54Z")

</div>

As I mentioned on Facebook, soon to be a major Country and Western song.

There’s a bair under thair and we gotta to get out of hair / You were biting my behind…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-actual-meaning-of-bear-down/933326/3 "2021-02-20T03:47:58Z")

</div>

Moral: Never shit on a bear in the woods.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-actual-meaning-of-bear-down/933326/4 "2021-02-20T04:06:26Z")

</div>

If a bear shits in an outhouse can we be certain the Pope is Catholic?