D defs.my
Entry 6 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Tame

/tām/ · IPA /teɪm/
01 v. t. To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.
  1. 1.
    To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.[Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
    “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.
02 a. Reduced from a state of native wildness and shyness; accustomed to man; domesticated; domestic; as, a tame deer, a tame bird.
  1. 1.
    Reduced from a state of native wildness and shyness; accustomed to man; domesticated; domestic; as, a tame deer, a tame bird.
  2. 2.
    Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.
    Tame slaves of the laborious plow.” — Roscommon.
  3. 3.
    Deficient in spirit or animation; spiritless; dull; flat; insipid; as, a tame poem; tame scenery.
Syn. Gentle; mild; meek. See Gentle.
03 v. t. To reduce from a wild to a domestic state; to make gentle and familiar; to reclaim; to domesticate; as, to tame a wild beast.
imp. & p. p. Tamed; p. pr. & vb. n. Taming
  1. 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. 2.
    To subdue; to conquer; to repress; as, to tame the pride or passions of youth.