tigerish, a.
(ˈtaɪgərɪʃ)
Also 6–7 tygrish, 6, 9 tigrish.
[f. tiger n. + -ish1.]
1. Like, or like that of, a tiger; esp. of the nature or having the qualities of the tiger; cruel, bloodthirsty, fierce, relentless.
| 1573 L. Lloyd Marrow of Hist. (1653) 265 Her cruel and Tigrish heart. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 467 Were thy eyes so stonie, thy breast so tygrish? 1604 Earl Stirling Aurora xci, And with my ashes glut thy Tygrish heart. 1846 Blackw. Mag. LIX. 406 [Their] craving for possession is treacherous and tigerish. 1887 E. E. Money Lit. Dutch Maid. (1888) 95 A wild-cat skin with handsome tigerish stripes. 1909 Daily Chron. 18 Feb. 7/4 There are many predatory and tigerish plants, of which the sundew is a notable example. |
b. Loud, flashy: cf. tiger n. 7.
| 1831 [see 3]. 1836 New Monthly Mag. XLVIII. 458 Whatever deviates from the unique standard of gentlemen's dressing is tigerish. 1853 Lytton My Novel vi. xx, Nothing could be more vagrant,..and, to use a slang word, tigrish, than his whole air. |
2. Abounding in or infested with tigers.
| 1819 Sporting Mag. IV. 175 They had crossed again Firoze's canal, which appeared very tigerish. 1851 Fraser's Mag. XLIV. 19 Through the thickest and most tigerish section of the jungle. |
3. Comb., as tigerish-looking.
| 1831 Society I. 48 A tigerish looking man planted himself where he could very rudely stare at Miss Delamere. |
Hence ˈtigerishly adv., ˈtigerishness.
| 1869 Daily News 12 June, A well-known plunger, whose attendant tiger is a miracle of tigerishness. 1879 J. Todhunter Alcestis 125 This sudden flood of fearful rapture, which Tugs my heart tigerishly. |