Definition of TAME

tame

Verb

Verb Forms: tamed, taming, tames

  • To domesticate an animal or bring something under control.
  • correct by punishment or discipline
  • make less strong or intense; soften
    • "The author finally tamed some of his potentially offensive statements"
  • adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment
    • "tame the soil"
  • overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable
    • "He tames lions for the circus"
  • make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans
    • "The wolf was tamed and evolved into the house dog"
  • To make (an animal) tame; to domesticate.
  • To make submissive or docile.
  • To take control of something that is unruly.
  • To become tame or domesticated.
  • To make gentle or meek.
  • To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.

Adjective Satellite

  • flat and uninspiring
  • very docile; ; - Langston Hughes
    • "tame obedience"

Adjective

  • Not wild or aggressive; domesticated.
  • very restrained or quiet
    • "a tame Christmas party"
    • "she was one of the tamest and most abject creatures imaginable with no will or power to act but as directed"
  • brought from wildness into a domesticated state
    • "tame animals"
    • "fields of tame blueberries"

Adj

  • Accustomed to human contact.
  • Docile or tranquil towards humans.
  • Of a person, well-behaved; not radical or extreme.
  • Of a non-Westernised person, accustomed to European society.
  • Not exciting.
  • Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.
  • Capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.

Examples

  • For a thriller, that film was really tame.
  • Guard dogs need to be tamed so that they know who not to attack.
  • He tamed the wild horse.
  • He tried to TAME the wild chaos of his tile rack into a coherent word.
  • His strategy was usually bold, but this round felt remarkably TAME.
  • Police have to tame the riots.
  • The governor tames the engine.
  • The lion was quite tame.
  • This party is too tame for me.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English tame, tome, weak inflection forms of Middle English tam, tom, from Old English tam, tom (“domesticated, tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *tam (“tame”), from Proto-Germanic *tamaz (“brought into the home, tame”), from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to tame, dominate”).
Cognate with Scots tam, tame (“tame”), Saterland Frisian tom (“tame”), West Frisian tam (“tame”), Dutch tam (“tame”), Low German Low German tamm, tahm (“tame”), German zahm (“tame”), Danish tam (“tame”), Swedish tam (“tame”), Icelandic tamur (“tame”).
The verb is from Middle English tamen, temen, temien, from Old English temian (“to tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *tammjan, from Proto-Germanic *tamjaną (“to tame”).

Antonyms

wild, exciting

Scrabble Score: 6

tame: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
tame: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
tame: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 7

tame: valid Words With Friends Word