tiger
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtaɪɡə/
enpr: tī'gər
ipa: /ˈtaɪɡɚ/
note: Inland Northern American, New England, some speakers
ipa: [ˈtʌɪɡɚ]
ipa: /ˈtɑɪɡə/
rhymes: -aɪɡə(ɹ)
homophone: taiga (non-rhotic)
Forms: form: tigers
form: tigre
form: tyger
form: tygre
Etymology: From Middle English tygre, in part from Old English tigras (pl.), in part from Anglo-Norman tigre, both from Latin tigris, from Ancient Greek τίγρις (tígris), from Iranian (compare Avestan 𐬙𐬌𐬔𐬭𐬌 (tigri, “arrow”), 𐬙𐬌𐬖𐬭𐬀 (tiγra, “pointed”)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Compare English stick.
Senses: examples: text: For with ſuch puiſſance and impetuous maine / Thoſe Champions broke on them, that forſt the fly, / Like ſcattered Sheepe, whenas the Shepherds ſwaine / A Lyon and a Tigre doth eſpye, / With greedy pace forth ruſhing from the foreſt nye.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 14, page 311:
hypernyms: felid
glosses: Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
examples: Coordinate term: tigress
hypernyms: felid
glosses: Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
A male tiger; as opposed to a tigress.
glosses: Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
A sabre-toothed tiger (any felid in subfamily †Machairodontinae).
qualifier: inexact
glosses: Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
A Tasmanian tiger, †Thylacinus cynocephalus.
qualifier: inexact
examples: text: Similar is the test among the Moxos of Peru. One of their totems is the tiger; and a candidate for the rank of medicine-man must prove his kinship to the tiger by being bitten by that animal and surviving the bite.
ref: 1887, James George Frazer, Totemism, page 20:
glosses: Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
A jaguar.
glosses: Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
Certain insects:
A tiger moth in the family Arctiidae.
glosses: Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
Certain insects:
A tiger beetle.
glosses: Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
Certain insects:
Any of the three Australian species of black-and-yellow striped dragonflies of the genus Ictinogomphus.
glosses: Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
Certain insects:
A tiger butterfly in tribe Danaini, especially subtribe Danaina.
examples: text: The heraldic tiger is a mythical beast, quite unlike a real tiger which is described in heraldry as a Bengal tiger. The ordinary tiger has no stripes, has a horn protruding from its nose, has tusks like a boar and a tufted mane, and has a lion's tail instead of a tiger's.
ref: 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, page 69:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A representation of a large mythological cat, used on a coat of arms.
examples: text: Jim remarked irrelevantly that tigers were 'schelms' and it was his conviction that there were a great many in the kloofs round about.
ref: 1907, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Jock of the Bushveld, Longmans, published 1976, →ISBN, page 251:
qualifier: dated but still used
glosses: A leopard.
examples: text: In this scenario, the growth rates are higher for the economic tigers than for the other economies.
ref: 2000, Jagdish Handa, Monetary Economics, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 709:
text: Then came the 2008 credit turmoil and ensuing economic slump, which not only belittled the huge economic and social gains of the various Baltic and Celtic Tigers, as well as of several former communist nations of Central Europe.
ref: 2009, Fabrizio Tassinari, Why Europe Fears Its Neighbors, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 21:
text: Once colonial or settler rule ended, such enterprises either lost the crutches of state support or became “white elephants,” draining resources from the wider economy. This was an important factor holding back the emergence of African tigers.
ref: 2014, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn, James Robinson, Africa's Development in Historical Perspective, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 287:
glosses: A relatively small country or group of countries with a fast-growing economy.
examples: text: We arranged that I should come here alone in the London coach; and that he, leaving his tiger and cab behind him, should come on , and arrive here as soon as possible this afternoon
ref: 1836, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Macrone, […], →OCLC:
text: The doom of Fate was, Be thou a Dandy! Have thy eye-glasses, opera-glasses, thy Long-Acre cabs with white-breeched tiger, thy yawning impassivities, pococurantisms; fix thyself in Dandyhood, undeliverable; it is thy doom.
ref: 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XVII, The Beginnings”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
glosses: A servant in livery, who rides with his master or mistress.
examples: text: Don't […] Tell your roommate that you heard the walls shaking all night, and it sounds like he's a real tiger in the sack.
ref: 2010, Jeff Wilser, The Maxims of Manhood:
glosses: A person who is very athletic during sexual intercourse.
examples: text: As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,
No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds,
No mournful bell shall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beasts, and birds of prey.
ref: c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: A ferocious, bloodthirsty and audacious person.
glosses: A pneumatic box or pan used in refining sugar.
Synonyms: word: tiger
Hypernyms: word: mammal
word: feline
word: big cat
Hyponyms: word: tigress
word: Balinese tiger
word: Bengal tiger
word: Indian tiger
word: Javan tiger
word: Siberian tiger
word: South China tiger
Derived terms: American tiger
Amur tiger
Asian Tiger
Australian tiger
Balinese tiger
Bali tiger
Bengal tiger
blind tiger
Brehm's tiger parrot
buck the tiger
Caspian tiger
deer tiger
double-nosed Andean tiger hound
fight the tiger
have a tiger by the tail
have the tiger by the tail
hot tiger
Hualapai tiger
Hyrcanian tiger
jagger
Javan tiger
lady or tiger
liger
man-tiger
Mexican tiger
native tiger
paper tiger
park a tiger
Queensland tiger
red tiger
ride the tiger
ruby tiger
saber-toothed tiger
sabertooth tiger
sabre-toothed tiger
scarlet tiger
scimitar-toothed tiger
she-tiger
Siberian tiger
Sumatran tiger
swamp tiger
Tasmanian tiger
tigard
tigerback
tiger balm
tiger barb
tiger beetle
tiger bench
tiger blood
tiger bread
tiger cage
tiger cat
tiger chair
tiger civet
tiger country
tigerdom
tiger economy
tigereye
tiger eye
tigerfish
tiger flower
tiger-foot
tiger goby
tiger grass
tiger heron
tigerhood
tiger in one's tank
tigerish
tigerism
tiger juice
tiger kidnap
tigerkin
tigerless
tigerlike
tiger lily
tiger-lily
tigerling
tigerly
tiger meat
tiger mom
tiger mosquito
tiger moth
tiger mother
tiger mum
tiger-nut
tiger nut
tiger of a different stripe
tiger paw
tiger pear
tiger pistol shrimp
tiger pit
tiger prawn
tigerproof
tiger quoll
tiger salamander
tiger sauce
tiger's claw
tiger's eye
tiger shark
tigerskin
tiger's milk
tiger snake
tiger snooze
tiger snout seahorse
tigerstripe
tiger stripe
tiger stripes
tiger swallowtail
tiger sweat
tigertail
tiger tail
tiger tail seahorse
tiger team
tiger tiger
tiger toast
Tigerville
tigerware
tiger wolf
tiger wood
tigerwood
tigery
tigon
tigress
Toyger
Turan tiger
weretiger
white tiger
Related terms: Tigger
tigrine