tiger

• tigre (obsolete)
• tyger (dated)

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”)). More at stick.

• (General American) enPR: tī'gər, IPA^(key): /ˈtaɪɡɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtaɪɡə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪɡə(ɹ)

tiger (plural tigers, feminine tigress)

1. Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book II, canto IX, stanza 14, page 311:

     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.

   1. A male tiger.
2. (heraldry) A representation of a large mythological cat, used on a coat of arms.
   • 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, page 69:

     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.

3. (obsolete) A servant in livery, who rides with his master or mistress.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Charles Dickens to this entry?)

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XVII, The Beginnings

     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.

4. (South Africa, dated but still used) A leopard.
   • 1907, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Jock of the Bushveld, Longmans 1976 ed., →ISBN, page 251:

     Jim remarked irrelevantly that tigers were 'schelms' and it was his conviction that there were a great many in the kloofs round about.

5. (US, slang) A person who is very athletic during sexual intercourse.
   • 2010, Jeff Wilser, The Maxims of Manhood

     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.

6. (figuratively) A ferocious, bloodthirsty and audacious person.
   • William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

     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.

7. (US, colloquial) A kind of growl or screech, after cheering.

   three cheers and a tiger

8. A pneumatic box or pan used in refining sugar.
9. A tiger moth in the family Arctiidae.
10. A tiger beetle.
11. A tiger butterfly in tribe Danaini, especially subtribe Danaina
12. A relatively small country or group of countries with a fast-growing economy.
    • 2000, Jagdish Handa, Monetary Economics, Psychology Press →ISBN, page 709

      In this scenario, the growth rates are higher for the economic tigers than for the other economies.

    • 2009, Fabrizio Tassinari, Why Europe Fears Its Neighbors, ABC-CLIO →ISBN, page 21

      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.

    • 2014, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn, James Robinson, Africa's Development in Historical Perspective, Cambridge University Press →ISBN, page 287

      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.

• Panthera tigris

• felid

• tiger cub
• tigress

• Tigger
• tigrine

• → Welsh: teigr

• Tigre, Tigré, greit, tigre

From English tiger.

• IPA^(key): (Revived Middle Cornish) /ˈtiːɡɛr/, (Revived Late Cornish) /ˈtiːɡɐr/

tiger m (plural tigres or tigri)

1. tiger

From German Tiger, from Latin tigris.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtiːər/, [ˈtˢiːɐ]
• Homophone: tier

tiger c (singular definite tigeren, plural indefinite tigere or tigre)

1. tiger

• “tiger” in Den Danske Ordbog

Borrowed from Old French tigre, from Latin tigris.

tiger m

1. tiger

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: tijger
• Limburgish: tieger

• “tiger”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “tiger”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

From Latin tigris.

tiger m (definite singular tigeren, indefinite plural tigere or tigre or tigrer, definite plural tigerne or tigrene)

1. a tiger, Panthera tigris

• sabeltanntiger

• “tiger” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin tigris.

tiger m (definite singular tigeren, indefinite plural tigrar, definite plural tigrane)

1. a tiger, Panthera tigris

• sabeltanntiger

• “tiger” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from Latin tigris.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtiɡer/

tiger m (nominative plural tigras)

1. tiger

• tigrisċ

• Middle English: tigre, tygre
  • Scots: tigir, tygir
  • English: tiger, tigre
    • → Welsh: teigr

Ultimately from Ancient Greek τίγρις (tígris), from Iranian (compare Avestan 𐬙𐬌𐬔𐬭𐬌‎ (tigri, “arrow”), 𐬙𐬌𐬖𐬭𐬀‎ (tiγra, “pointed”)).

• IPA^(key): /tìːɡər/

tígər m anim (female equivalent tīgrica)

1. tiger

• IPA^(key): /¹tiːɡɛr/

• audio

  (file)

tiger c

1. tiger (animal)

tiger

1. present tense of tiga.

tiger c (plural tigers, diminutive tigerke)

1. tiger

• “tiger”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011