tiger mother

Noun

tiger mother (plural tiger mothers)

1. A woman who is fiercely protective of one or more people in her care.
   • […] I spent all last night on my knees, beseeching the Great Physician to hear me and heal my boy. […] but the instinct of the tiger-mother is tearing my heart to pieces […].1907, Elizabeth Fremantle, Comrades Two, William Heinemann, page 237
   • When she was in her busy mood, domineering and protecting me, I used to think what a dolls' generalissimo she must have been in childhood. "And where you're concerned," she would say, "I'm a tiger-mother and a regular Fury. […]"1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, Viking

   Synonyms:

   mama bear, mama grizzly

2. A mother who drives her child or children very hard to succeed in school or in extracurricular studies, such as learning a musical instrument.
   • I would like to see Oxford and Cambridge turned into graduate universities entirely devoted to research, which at a stroke would cool the ardour of the "tiger mothers" of Holland Park and Hampstead determined to set their three-year-olds on the path to Oxbridge, whatever the human cost.2005 May 9, J. G. Ballard, “Now parliament is just another hypermarket”, in New Statesman
   • If you have tiger mother tendencies, the very worst thing you can do is visit China. It will only increase your determination to squeeze some achievement out of your young.2011 November 2, Anne McElvoy, “Take care, children: China's tiger cubs are on your tail”, in London Evening Standard