tame

tame

To run tame about a house ; to live familiarly in a family with which one is upon a visit.

Tame army ; the city trained bands.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Tame (?), v. t. [Cf. F. entamer to cut into, to broach.]

To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.

In the time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his covetousness, but providence, hath reserved for time of need. Fuller.

© Webster 1913.

Tame, a. [Compar. Tamer (?); superl. Tamest.] [AS. tam; akin to D. tam, G. zahm, OHG. zam, Dan. & Sw. tam, Icel. tamr, L. domare to tame, Gr. , Skr. dam to be tame, to tame, and perhaps to E. beteem. 61. Cf. Adamant, Diamond, Dame, Daunt, Indomitable.]

1.

Reduced from a state of native wildness and shyness; accustomed to man; domesticated; domestic; as, a tame deer, a tame bird.

2.

Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.

Tame slaves of the laborious plow. Roscommon.

3.

Deficient in spirit or animation; spiritless; dull; flat; insipid; as, a tame poem; tame scenery.

Syn. -- Gentle; mild; meek. See Gentle.

© Webster 1913.

Tame, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tamed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Taming.] [AS. tamian, temian, akin to D. tammen, temmen, G. zahmen, OHG. zemmen, Icel. temja, Goth. gatamjan. See Tame, a.]

1.

To reduce from a wild to a domestic state; to make gentle and familiar; to reclaim; to domesticate; as, to tame a wild beast.

They had not been tamed into submission, but baited into savegeness and stubbornness. Macaulay.

2.

To subdue; to conquer; to repress; as, to tame the pride or passions of youth.

© Webster 1913.