tame

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Accustomed to human contact.

2. 2

   Docile or tranquil towards humans.

   • The lion was quite tame.
3. 3

   Of a person, well-behaved

   Of a person, well-behaved; not radical or extreme.

4. ›+ 13 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Of a non-Westernised person, accustomed to European society.

      • The victim was Captain Bickenson, who had gone there from Port Darwin to try the pearling grounds, and for this purpose employed a number of tame blacks about the schooner.
   2. 5

      Not exciting.

      • This party is too tame for me.
      • For a thriller, that film was really tame.
      • Wow! So the implication there is that even 12-year-olds in France will find the movie tame. “Yes, eet was a, an amusing erotic trifle, I supposa. Ze love-making was passable, but, uh, belt play is a leettle pedestriahn, don’t you seenk?”.
   3. 6

      Crushed

      Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.

      • tame slaves of the laborious plough
   4. 7

      Capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.

   5. 8

      To make (an animal) tame

      To make (an animal) tame; to domesticate.

      • He tamed the wild horse.
      • Richard Wrangham has noted that the domestication of animals usually tames them by slowing down components of the developmental timetable to retain juvenile traits into adulthood, a process called pedomorphy or neoteny.
      • Due to his ingenuity Homo learned to unleash the energy of wood by taming wild fire and stepped into the pyrocultural age.
   6. 9

      To make submissive or docile.

      • The governor tames the engine.
   7. 10

      To take control of something that is unruly.

      • Police have to tame the riots.
   8. 11

      To become tame or domesticated.

      • Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily.
   9. 12

      To make gentle or meek.

      • Guard dogs need to be tamed so that they know who not to attack.
      • None but Adrian could have tamed the motley population of London, which, like a troop of unbitted steeds rushing to their pastures, had thrown aside all minor fears, through the operation of the fear paramount.
   10. 13

       To broach or enter upon

       To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.

       • In the time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his covetousness, but providence, hath reserved for time of need.
   11. 14

       A surname transferred from the nickname.

   12. 15

       A river in the West Midlands, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, England, a tributary to the…

       A river in the West Midlands, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, England, a tributary to the Trent.

   13. 16

       A river in Greater Manchester, England, which joins the River Goyt at Stockport, then…

       A river in Greater Manchester, England, which joins the River Goyt at Stockport, then becoming the River Mersey.

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