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Tame

//teɪm// adj, name, verb

Definitions

Adjective

1
Accustomed to human contact.
2
Docile or tranquil towards humans.
"The lion was quite tame."
3
Of a person, well-behaved; not radical or extreme. figuratively
"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."
4
Of a non-Westernised person, accustomed to European society. obsolete
"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."
5
Not exciting.
"This party is too tame for me."

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6
Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.
"tame slaves of the laborious plough"
7
Capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.

Adjective

1
flat and uninspiring wordnet
2
very docile wordnet
3
brought from wildness into a domesticated state wordnet
4
very restrained or quiet wordnet

Proper Noun

1
A surname transferred from the nickname.
2
A river in the West Midlands, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, England, a tributary to the Trent.
3
A river in Greater Manchester, England, which joins the River Goyt at Stockport, then becoming the River Mersey.

Verb

1
To make (an animal) tame; to domesticate. transitive
"He tamed the wild horse."
2
To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out. UK, dialectal, obsolete
"In the time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his covetousness, but providence, hath reserved for time of need."
3
correct by punishment or discipline wordnet
4
To make submissive or docile. transitive
"The governor tames the engine."
5
make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans wordnet

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6
To take control of something that is unruly. transitive
"Police have to tame the riots."
7
overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable wordnet
8
To become tame or domesticated. intransitive
"Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily."
9
adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment wordnet
10
To make gentle or meek. transitive
"Guard dogs need to be tamed so that they know who not to attack."
11
make less strong or intense; soften wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”).

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

From Middle English tamen (“to cut into, broach”). Compare French entamer.

Etymology 4

English surname, from the adjective Middle English tame as a nickname, and in some cases a habitational surname from Thame in Oxfordshire.

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