catch a Tartar

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English

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Alternative forms

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Verb

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catch a Tartar (third-person singular simple present catches a Tartar, present participle catching a Tartar, simple past and past participle caught a Tartar)

  1. (archaic, colloquial) To discover someone is much stronger, much more dangerous, and/or much more violent than they appeared at first, especially after laying hands on them or (thieves' cant, obsolete) in a failed attempt to rob someone who turns out to be a stronger robber.
    • 1674, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, §1.3.175:
      Now thou hast got me for a Tartar,
      To make m 'gainst my will take quarter.
    • 1680, John Dryden, Kind Keeper, §5.1.62:
      What a Tartar have I caught!
    • 1720, Daniel Defoe, Life of Captain Singleton, page 281:
      Tell him, if he try, he may catch a Tartar.
  2. (archaic, colloquial, figurative) To discover someone who cannot be controlled or disposed of more generally.
    • 1897, Florence Marryat, chapter XIV, in The Blood of the Vampire:
      You must give up flirting, my boy, or if I mistake not, you'll find you've caught a Tartar.

References

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