tiger by the tail

1. Something too difficult to manage or cope with, as in You know nothing about the commodities market; you'll end up catching a tiger by the tail. This colorful metaphor conjures up the image of grabbing a powerful but fierce animal by the tail, only to have it turn on one. [Second half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

A child of the Dust Bowl, Owens was born in Texas and spent much of his childhood in Arizona before popping up in Bakersfield‘s nascent music club scene. He brought a twangy sound to country ballads, and by the 1950s and 1960s, that sound had turned his city into a western rival to Nashville. Some of his hits included “Together Again,” “Crying Time,” “Love’s Gonna Live Here,” “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” and “Under Your Spell Again.”

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“When I graduated from school, I felt like I had the tiger by the tail; I could do almost anything,” Braugher told Variety in 2020.

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“I told Kevin, ‘You know you got a tiger by the tail here.

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I think the left is realizing they have a tiger by the tail.

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“We got a chance to get a Tiger by the tail,” Pough joked.

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Related Words

• craving 
• craze 
• craziness 
• enthusiasm 
• fad 
• fascination 
• frenzy 
• infatuation 
• lunacy 
• obsession 
• passion 
• rage