tame

• IPA^(key): /teɪm/

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• Rhymes: -eɪm
• Homophone: Thame

From Middle English tame, tome, weak inflection forms of Middle English tam, tom, from Old English tam, tom (“domesticated, tame”), from Proto-Germanic *tamaz (“brought into the home, tame”), from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to tame, to dominate”). Cognate with Scots tam, tame (“tame”), Saterland Frisian tom (“tame”), West Frisian tam (“tame”), Dutch tam (“tame”), Low German Low German tamm, tahm (“tame”), German zahm (“tame”), Swedish tam (“tame”), Icelandic tamur (“tame”).

tame (comparative tamer, superlative tamest)

1. Not or no longer wild; domesticated

   Antonym: wild

   They have a tame wildcat.

2. (chiefly of animals) Mild and well-behaved; accustomed to human contact

   Synonym: gentle

   The lion was quite tame.

3. Not exciting

   Synonyms: dull, insipid

   Antonym: exciting

   This party is too tame for me.

   For a thriller, that film was really tame.

   • 2015 February 15, John Oliver, “Tobacco”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 2, HBO:

     Wow! So the implication there is that even 12-year-olds in France will find the movie tame. “Yes, eet was a, an amusing erotic trifle, I supposa. Ze love-making was passable, but, uh, belt play is a leettle pedestriahn, don’t you seenk?”.

4. Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless
   • Roscommon

     tame slaves of the laborious plough

5. (mathematics, of a knot) Capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.

   Antonym: wild

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:tame.

tame (third-person singular simple present tames, present participle taming, simple past and past participle tamed)

1. (transitive) To make (an animal) tame; to domesticate.

   He tamed the wild horse.

2. (intransitive) To become tame or domesticated.
   • 2006, Gayle Soucek, Doves (page 78)

     Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily.

3. (transitive) To make gentle or meek.

   to tame a rebellion

• tame on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Compare French entamer (“to cut into, to broach”).

tame (third-person singular simple present tames, present participle taming, simple past and past participle tamed)

1. (obsolete, Britain, dialectal) To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.
   • Fuller

     In the time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his covetousness, but providence, hath reserved for time of need.

• AEMT, Atem, META, Meta, Tema, mate, maté, meat, meta, meta-, team

From Proto-Samic *δëmē.

taṃe

1. glue

• Entry 23886 in Álgu database

tame

1. Rōmaji transcription of ため

tame

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of tam.