Word.ws English Dictionary

had a tiger by the tail

had a tiger by the tail is the simple past and past participle of have a tiger by the tail.

Meaning of have a tiger by the tail

Verb

have a tiger by the tail (third-person singular simple present has a tiger by the tail, present participle having a tiger by the tail, simple past and past participle had a tiger by the tail)

  1. (idiomatic) To be in a difficult or dangerous situation in which one ideally should not remain, but from which one cannot withdraw.
    • "Sounds like you have a tiger by the tail. Hawthorne won't go down without a battle and will probably sue you if he wins," Clair admonished.2009, Jack Dalton, A Country Lawyer, Strategic Book Publishing, →ISBN, page 75

Questions about had a tiger by the tail

What is had a tiger by the tail the simple past and past participle of?
Had a tiger by the tail is the simple past and past participle of have a tiger by the tail.

Words near had a tiger by the tail in the dictionary

  1. had a stab
  2. had a tantrum
  3. had a thick head
  4. had a thin time of it
  5. had a thing going on
  6. had a tiger by the tail
  7. had a time
  8. had a time of it
  9. had a turtle's head
  10. had a visual on
  11. had a way with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had a tiger by the tail (page history and authors); have a tiger by the tail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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