Animal verbs

beef up
chicken out
egg on (not really an animal)
pig out
have a cow
ham it up
rat on
snake by
pussyfoot
horse around
eat like a horse
piss like a racehorse
monkey around
play possum
ferret out
henpeck
dovetail
crow
hawk
duck
goose
dog
ape
parrot
worm
fish
snail
outfox
tail (not really an animal either)
bug
vamoose (just kidding)

 

I was surprised by how many I eventually came up with, starting from an original list of only four. I was also surprised by how many items on the list were different kinds of birds. It would of course be fascinating to compile lists of animal verbs in other languages as well; sadly the only language I'm familiar enough with so far to do this convincingly is English. Any suggestions along these lines would be most welcome. I also considered expanding the criteria by including other types of animal idioms besides verbs, like "as the crow flies" or "toady", for example. But I figured this might easily result in a list so voluminous that it would begin to take up a somewhat disproportionate amount of time relative to some other things I've been trying to accomplish lately. So, I guess you'll just have to be content with the list as it currently stands, at least for now.