He was a tiger on the basketball court.
even the best defense can't keep that tiger from scoring
Recent Examples on the WebThen there’s the pants that were shredded by a tiger.—Candi Bolden, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 June 2024 The car has no wheels, and its interior is destroyed as if by the tiger.—Christopher Lawrence, Twin Cities, 15 June 2024 Among the animals are tigers Serenity and Theodora, Douala the lioness, a zebra named Zuko and Wolfgang the wildebeest.—Nicholas Rice, Peoplemag, 2 June 2024 Those tracks would lead us to Taman Negara, one of the world’s oldest rainforests and the last refuge of the Malayan tiger.—Arati Menon, Condé Nast Traveler, 25 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for tiger
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tiger.' 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
Middle English tigre, from Old English tiger & Anglo-French tigre, both from Latin tigris, from Greek, probably of Iranian origin; akin to Avestan tighra- pointed; akin to Greek stizein to tattoo — more at stick
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of tiger was
before the 12th century
: 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)
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