tame

1 of 2

adjective

tamer; tamest
1
: reduced from a state of native wildness especially so as to be tractable and useful to humans : domesticated
tame animals
2
: made docile and submissive : subdued
3
: lacking spirit, zest, interest, or the capacity to excite : insipid
a tame campaign
tamely adverb
tameness noun

tame

2 of 2

verb

tamed; taming

transitive verb

1
a
: to reduce from a wild to a domestic state
b
: to subject to cultivation
c
: to bring under control : harness
2
: to deprive of spirit : humble, subdue
the once revolutionary … party, long since tamedThe Times Literary Supplement (London)
3
: to tone down : soften
tamed the language in the play

intransitive verb

: to become tame
tamable adjective
or tameable
tamer noun

Examples of tame in a Sentence

Adjective The island's birds are quite tame. They ran a pretty tame campaign. Some people were shocked by the movie, but I found the story pretty tame. Members of the audience were too tame to interrupt the speaker. Verb It took a while to tame the horse. the people who tamed the Wild West He struggled to tame his temper. The government needs to do something to tame inflation.
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
This year's plungers braved relatively tame temperatures compared to many previous years, and many enjoyed time with friends and family in tents and at bonfires on the beach before and after the plunge. Claire Reid, Journal Sentinel, 26 Feb. 2024 That bright and zingy mixture gets swirled into an otherwise relatively tame chicken-and-rice soup. Emily Heil, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024 Overall delinquency rates remain relatively tame, thanks mostly to mortgage and student loans performing well, New York Fed researchers said. Alicia Wallace, CNN, 6 Feb. 2024 Aside from the Tarantino-esque muppet massacre, this was a pretty tame episode by Gen V standards. Alex Raiman, EW.com, 13 Oct. 2023 Pretty much wall-to-wall sunshine and tame wind — just a few brief gusts from the northeast around 10 mph here and there. A. Camden Walker, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2024 Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term Your band, the MC5, was already around at that time, but in a much tamer version. Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 3 Feb. 2024 Of the endless haircare items that promise to boost moisture, add shine, and tame frizz, a go-to type of product currently embraced by beauty bloggers and hairstylists alike is hair oil. Alyssa Hui, Verywell Health, 17 Jan. 2024 By today’s standard — i.e., hard-core internet pornography — bikini shoots and plunging necklines are tame, if not banal. Madeleine Kearns, National Review, 1 Jan. 2024
Verb
The Fed has seen some substantial progress in taming price increases since kicking off a historic inflation-busting campaign two years ago. Bryan Mena, CNN, 6 Mar. 2024 This time around, despite the unusual economic backdrop in which the Fed has been able to tame inflation without causing the unemployment rate to go up, Shilling says the very American tendency to believe in a rosy future overshadows some clear warning signs. Paolo Confino, Fortune, 5 Mar. 2024 In a new social media campaign aimed at taming wild, law-breaking partiers, a few concerned citizens appear in a public service announcement to give it to them straight. Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 4 Mar. 2024 Police decided to release the body and security camera footage to try to tame the swell of online misinformation, said Lt. Nick Boatman, a spokesman for Owasso police. USA TODAY, 2 Mar. 2024 Europe is trying to tame a supply chain that’s fractured, low-tech, disorderly and rife for abuse by thousands of small farmers and surreptitious middlemen. Mumbi Gitau, Fortune Europe, 27 Feb. 2024 The Federal Reserve has been trying to tame inflation back to its target of 2%. Yuri Kageyama, Quartz, 26 Feb. 2024 The Federal Reserve, which was tightening financial spigots in 2022 and 2023 to tame high inflation, is now talking about loosening them by cutting interest rates later this year. Laurent Belsie, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Feb. 2024 Supply chains have cleared their backlogs, taming prices for refrigerators and rugs alike. Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tame.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Middle English, from Old English tam; akin to Old High German zam tame, Latin domare to tame, Greek damnanai

First Known Use

Adjective

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

13th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of tame was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near tame

Cite this Entry

“Tame.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tame. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

tame

1 of 2 adjective
tamer; tamest
1
: changed from the wild state so as to become useful and obedient to human beings : domesticated
a tame elephant
2
: made gentle and obedient
3
: lacking spirit or interest : dull
tamely adverb
tameness noun

tame

2 of 2 verb
tamed; taming
1
a
: to make or become tame
tame a lion
b
: to subject to cultivation
wilderness tamed by farmers
2
: to bring under control : subdue
tame your temper
tamer noun

More from Merriam-Webster on tame

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