Tame Meaning

/teɪm/
B2

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

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adjAccustomed to human contact.

adjUnder human control.

The birds are so tame they will eat from your hand.
The bear is quite tame and doesn't bite.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The wild tiger was not ____, so the trainer stayed very cautious.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The researchers managed to ____ the wild animal and study its behavior in a safe and controlled environment today.

From Middle English tame, tome, weak inflection forms of Middle English tam, tom, from Old English tam, tom (“domesticated, tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *tam (“tame”), from Proto-Germanic *tamaz (“brought into the home, tame”), from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to tame, dominate”). Cognate with Scots tam, tame (“tame”), Saterland Frisian tom (“tame”), West Frisian tam (“tame”), Dutch tam (“tame”), Low German Low German tamm, tahm (“tame”), German zahm (“tame”), Danish tam (“tame”), Swedish tam (“tame”), Icelandic tamur (“tame”). The verb is from Middle English tamen, temen, temien, from Old English temian (“to tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *tammjan, from Proto-Germanic *tamjaną (“to tame”).

"What, for example, were Fraunhofer's lines? McArdle had just been studying the matter with the aid of our tame scientist at the office, and he picked from his desk two of those many-coloured spectral bands which bear a general resemblance to the hat-ribbons of some young and ambitious cricket club." — 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
"The victim was Captain Bickenson, who had gone there from Port Darwin to try the pearling grounds, and for this purpose employed a number of tame blacks about the schooner." — 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 290:
"Wow! So the implication there is that even 12-year-olds in France will find the movie tame. “Yes, eet was a, an amusing erotic trifle, I supposa. Ze love-making was passable, but, uh, belt play is a leettle pedestriahn, don’t you seenk?”." — 2015 February 15, “Tobacco”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 2, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
"tame slaves of the laborious plough" — a. 1685, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Paraphrase on the 148th Psalm:
"Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily." — 2006, Gayle Soucek, Doves, page 78:

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CEFR Practice Quiz
The wild tiger was not ____, so the trainer stayed very cautious.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The researchers managed to ____ the wild animal and study its behavior in a safe and controlled environment today.

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