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tiger

Pronunciation: /ˈtʌɪgə/
Translate tiger | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of tiger

noun

  • 1a very large solitary cat with a yellow-brown coat striped with black, native to the forests of Asia but becoming increasingly rare.
    • Panthera tigris, family Felidae
  • used to refer to someone fierce, determined, or ambitious:despite his wound, he still fought like a tiger one of the sport’s young tigers
  • (also tiger economy) a dynamic economy of one of the smaller East Asian countries, especially that of Singapore, Taiwan, or South Korea.
  • informal, chiefly Australian/NZ a person with an insatiable appetite for something:I’m a tiger for a bargain
  • 2used in names of tiger moths and striped butterflies, e.g. scarlet tiger, plain tiger.

Phrases

have a tiger by the tail (also be riding a tiger)

have embarked on a course of action which proves unexpectedly difficult but which cannot easily or safely be abandoned: if you push me down again you might find that you have a tiger by the tail she was riding a tiger and there was no way of escape

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French tigre, from Latin tigris, from Greek

tiger in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of tiger in the US English dictionary

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