Definition of "tiger"

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.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 14, page 311

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.

1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, page 69

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

1907, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Jock of the Bushveld, Longmans, published 1976, page 251

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

2000, Jagdish Handa, Monetary Economics, Psychology Press, page 709

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.

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

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.

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

We arranged that I should come here alone in the London coach; and that he, leaving his tiger and cab behind him, should come on , and arrive here as soon as possible this afternoon

1836, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Macrone, […]

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.

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XVII, The Beginnings”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, book II (The Ancient Monk)

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.

2010, Jeff Wilser, The Maxims of Manhood

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.

c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

He spoke with a very strong Scotch accent, and is by no means a graceful orator, but he produced througout a most favourable impression upon all his hearers, and especially upon the students, one of whom shouted as the speaker closed, 'Long Live PRESIDENT M'COSH!' and then proposed three cheers, which were given with a will, followed by the usual tiger and ' rocket.'

1868, Punch: Or the London Charivari - Volume 55, page 231

. . every blue coat in the audience sprang to his feet, with three times three and a tiger.

1941, Margaret Leech, Reveille in Washington

One Brooklyn military company has a “tiger” composed of a provincial expression borrowed from the farmers. When drawled out by a hundred throats the phrase "I-wanter-know!" always produces a laugh.

2008, D. C. Beard, The Outdoor Handy Book: For Playground, Field, and Forest, page 413