in the bud

Biden was at his peak back then and probably would have beaten Trump, nipping his political career in the bud.

"You don't just suddenly have a leap forward and one day you wake up and everything's OK. It takes time and you've got to be disciplined with how you approach it, and you've got to nip things in the bud before these negative thoughts start to take hold."

“By taking one of these vaccines, that’s a really good way for us to potentially nip this current wave in the bud,” Hudson said.

Mr Dooley said the practice of dynamic pricing “must be nipped in the bud before it becomes common practice”.

It reads: "A city built upon mud, a culture built upon profit, free speech nipped in the bud, the minority always guilty."