tamer; tamest
1
a
: not wild : trained to obey people
a tame elephant
b
: not afraid of people
The island's birds are quite tame.
2
: not exciting or interesting : dull
They ran a pretty/quite/rather tame campaign.
Some people were shocked by the movie, but I found the story pretty tame.
3
: gentle and obedient
Members of the audience were too tame to interrupt the speaker.
tames; tamed; taming
1
: to make (an animal) tame
It took a while to tame the horse.
2
: to make (something) less wild or difficult to control : to bring (something) under control
the people who tamed the Wild West
He struggled to tame his temper.
The government needs to do something to tame inflation.
Cite this Entry
“Tame.” Merriam-Webster.com Simple Definition, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/simple/tame. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026.
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