Word.ws English Dictionary

having the tiger by the tail

having the tiger by the tail is the present participle and gerund of have the tiger by the tail.

Meaning of have the tiger by the tail

Verb

have the tiger by the tail (third-person singular simple present has the tiger by the tail, present participle having the tiger by the tail, simple past and past participle had the 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.
    • "We have the tiger by the tail," Paul whispered. "We can't go down, can't land…and I don't think I can lift us out of this. We'll have to ride it out."1965 October 1, Frank Herbert, “Book II: Muad’Dib”, in Dune, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Book Company; [Toronto], Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 225

Questions about having the tiger by the tail

What is having the tiger by the tail the present participle and gerund of?
Having the tiger by the tail is the present participle and gerund of have the tiger by the tail.

Words near having the tiger by the tail in the dictionary

  1. having the painters in
  2. having the pas of someone
  3. having the pleasure
  4. having the right time
  5. having the sun in one's eyes
  6. having the tiger by the tail
  7. having the wind up
  8. having the wolf by the ear
  9. having the world by the bag
  10. having the world by the balls
  11. having the world by the neck

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having the tiger by the tail (page history and authors); have the 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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