Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
ride the tiger en · VERB
Meanings
-
(idiomatic) To maintain control over something aggressive and dangerous.
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.
2014, Nicholas Tarling, Britain and Sihanouk's Cambodia, page 41:You can’t ride the tiger. That’s the lesson here: once populism has grasped the levers of power, even the richest man in the world cannot be sure of exploiting it for his own ends, or imposing his own agenda on the chaos.
2025 June 9, Gaby Hinsliff, “Trump has unleashed something terrifying in the US – that even he may be powerless to control”, in The Guardian, →ISSN: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 […]
2012, Sean McMeekin, The Berlin-Baghdad Express, page 258:
Forms
Coordinates
hold the reins
Relateds
Pandora's box · put the genie back in the bottle