I. ˈtām adjective
( -er/-est )
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English tam; akin to Old Frisian tam tame, Old High German zam, Old Norse tamr; all from a prehistoric verb represented by Old English temian to tame, Old High German zemmen, Old Norse temja, Gothic ga tamjan, Latin domare, Greek damnanai to tame, Sanskrit damayati he tames
1.
a. : reduced from a state of native wildness : made tractable and useful to man : domesticated
tame cattle gone wild — Hart Stilwell
b. : maintained or displayed to serve the purposes of another : permitted to exist as a harmless specimen of its kind
our tame firebrand — Dorothy Sayers
the new tame sultan — Janet Flanner
c. : brought under control : harnessed
on the day the control structures are completed … the mighty Mississippi should be a pretty tame and useful river — A.W.Baum
2.
a. : not having or showing the qualities (as ferocity or shyness) characteristic of a wild state
the chipmunks … are so tame they beg for food — American Guide Series: California
b. : made docile and submissive : meek , subdued
no colt will bear it, or he's a tame beast — George Meredith
3. : cultivated
the yield of tame blueberries runs from 150 to 1200 quarts per acre — J.M.White
4. : lacking in spirit, zest, or interest : dull , mild , insipid
struck out for himself and refused to live the tame easy life — Frank Sargeson
a little tame wood which rambled up from the village — Audrey Barker
a tame book
a tame campaign
Synonyms:
subdued , submissive : tame , in relation to persons and their actions and utterances, suggests domination by others, often with voluntary surrender, or a marked docility and timidity, and lack of independence, assertiveness, exuberance, or wildness
the tamest, the most abject creatures that we can possibly imagine: mild, peaceable, and tractable, they seem to have no will or power to act but as directed by their masters — William Bartram
tame acquiescence in tradition and routine — Irving Babbitt
subdued generally implies a loss of vehemence, intensity, or force; in reference to people it suggests the quietness or meekness of one dependent, chastised, broken, or timorous
subdued voices
there were seamen going about routine duties, but they performed them in a subdued, soundless manner as though they were officiating at church — C.B.Nordhoff & J.N.Hall
their next meeting displayed her quieter: subdued as one who had been set thinking — George Meredith
submissive implies deferring to the will of another and yielding and humbly obeying
a people, gentle, submissive, prompt to obey, and accustomed, as were the Egyptians, to the inexorable demands of tyranny — Agnes Repplier
in the submissive way of one long accustomed to obey under coercion, he ate and drank what they gave him — Charles Dickens
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English tamen, from tame, adjective
transitive verb
1.
a. : to reduce from a wild to a domestic state : make gentle or tractable : domesticate
tame a lion
b. : to subject to cultivation
small valleys and plains that have been tamed and worked into precise patterns by generations of farmers — Patrick O'Donovan
c. : to bring under control : make manageable or usable
roads blasted in the solid rock, wild streams dammed and tamed — John Muir †1914
tame the atom
the sources have been tamed in a masterly fashion — M.M.Postan
2. : to deprive of spirit, courage, or resistance : humble , subdue
tamed the populace with shiploads of … wheat — T.H.Fielding
3. : to tone down : soften
in revising the play, he has tamed it
intransitive verb
: to become tame
the manatees tamed quickly — Natural History
a roughneck frontiersman who tames down at the end — Walter Havighurst
III. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English tamen, short for atamen, from Middle French atamer to attack, from Late Latin attaminare, from Latin ad- + taminare to violate (akin to Latin tangere to touch) — more at tangent
1. dialect England : to cut into : pierce ; especially : broach
2. dialect England : prune