Word.ws English Dictionary

have a tiger by the tail

have a tiger by the tail verb: to be in a difficult or dangerous situation in which one ideally should not remain, but from which one cannot withdraw.

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

Synonyms of have a tiger by the tail

Forms of have a tiger by the tail

third-person singular presenthas a tiger by the tail
present participlehaving a tiger by the tail
past participlehad a tiger by the tail
pasthad a tiger by the tail
alternative formhave the tiger by the tail

Questions about have a tiger by the tail

What does have a tiger by the tail mean?
Have a tiger by the tail means to be in a difficult or dangerous situation in which one ideally should not remain, but from which one cannot withdraw.
What part of speech is have a tiger by the tail?
Have a tiger by the tail is a verb.
What is the past tense of have a tiger by the tail?
The past tense of have a tiger by the tail is had a tiger by the tail.

Words near have a tiger by the tail in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-have a tiger by the tail.ogg.

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