ride the tiger
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English[edit]
Verb[edit]
ride the tiger (third-person singular simple present rides the tiger, present participle riding the tiger, simple past rode the tiger, past participle ridden the tiger)
- (idiomatic) To maintain control over something aggressive and dangerous.
- 2012, Sean McMeekin, The Berlin-Baghdad Express, page 258:
- The Germans had ridden the tiger of Islamic rage and resentment a long way – across the Red Sea into Eritrea and Somalia, into the inner sanctum of the Arabian desert, then winding through Mesopotamia, Persia and Afghanistan […]
- 2014, Nicholas Tarling, Britain and Sihanouk's Cambodia, page 41:
- He has ridden the tiger with some skill. But the tiger is growing up slowly and Cambodia will find it more and more difficult to follow Communist policies abroad while keeping Communism down at home.