Word.ws English Dictionary

rides the tiger

rides the tiger is the third-person singular simple present indicative of ride the tiger.

Meaning of ride the tiger

Verb

ride the tiger (third-person singular simple present rides the tiger, present participle riding the tiger, simple past rode the tiger, past participle ridden the tiger)

  1. (idiomatic) To maintain control over something aggressive and dangerous.
    • The Germans had ridden the tiger of Islamic rage and resentment a long way – across the Red Sea into Eritrea and Somalia, into the inner sanctum of the Arabian desert, then winding through Mesopotamia, Persia and Afghanistan […]2012, Sean McMeekin, The Berlin-Baghdad Express, page 258

Questions about rides the tiger

What is rides the tiger the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Rides the tiger is the third-person singular simple present indicative of ride the tiger.

Words near rides the tiger in the dictionary

  1. rides the rail
  2. rides the rails
  3. rides the rods
  4. rides the short bus
  5. rides the three-legged mare
  6. rides the tiger
  7. rides the wave
  8. rides to hounds
  9. rides up
  10. rides up on
  11. rides with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rides the tiger (page history and authors); ride the tiger (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “rides the tiger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rides_the_tiger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.