Illustration of tiger
- tiger 1a
plural tigers
1
plural also tiger
a
: a large Asian carnivorous mammal (Panthera tigris) of the cat family having a usually tawny coat transversely striped with black
b
: any of several large wildcats (such as the jaguar or cougar)
c
: a domestic cat with striped pattern
d
Australia
: tasmanian tiger
2
a
: a fierce, daring, or aggressive person or quality
aroused the tiger in him
a tiger for work
b
: someone or something (such as a situation) that is formidable or impossible to control
how the tiger of inflation can be tamed—
J. A. Davenport
—often used in the phrases ride a tiger and have a tiger by the tail
J. A. Davenport3
British
: a groom in livery
tigerishly
adverb
tigerishness
noun
Examples of tiger in a Sentence
He was a tiger on the basketball court.
even the best defense can't keep that tiger from scoring
Recent Examples on the Web
Other winners include outrageous accommodations like pods, bubbles, caves, and treehouses, while bucket-list adventures include sleeping with tigers or hanging from cliffs.
—Jim Dobson, Forbes.com, 29 Apr. 2025
It’s packed with skin-soothing tiger grass, brightening licorice root, and nourishing Kalahari melon oil—and was made specifically with melanin-rich skin in mind.
—Christa Joanna Lee, Glamour, 25 Apr. 2025
An estimated 260 tigers live within it, while another 300 or so live elsewhere in Uttarakhand, for a total of 560 cats statewide, according to the most recent tiger census.
—Michael Benanav, Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 2025
Research on the Australian thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), driven to extinction less than a century ago, is ahead of schedule.
—Mike Snider, USA Today, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tiger
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Jim Dobson, Forbes.com, 29 Apr. 2025
It’s packed with skin-soothing tiger grass, brightening licorice root, and nourishing Kalahari melon oil—and was made specifically with melanin-rich skin in mind.
—Christa Joanna Lee, Glamour, 25 Apr. 2025
An estimated 260 tigers live within it, while another 300 or so live elsewhere in Uttarakhand, for a total of 560 cats statewide, according to the most recent tiger census.
—Michael Benanav, Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 2025
Research on the Australian thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), driven to extinction less than a century ago, is ahead of schedule.
—Mike Snider, USA Today, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tiger
Cite this Entry
“Tiger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tiger. Accessed 6 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
tiger
noun
ti·ger
ˈtī-gər 
plural tigers also tiger
1
: a large Asian flesh-eating mammal of the same family as the domestic cat with a coat that is typically light brown to orange with mostly vertical black stripes
2
: any of several large wildcats (as the jaguar or cougar)
3
: a domestic cat with a striped coat
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