(Also 9 tigeress.) [f. TIGER + -ESS, after F. tigresse.]
1. A female tiger.
1611. Cotgr., Tigresse, a Tigresse, a she Tiger.
1624. Massinger, Renegado, III. v. If Christians have mothers, sure they share in The tigress fierceness.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, xv. 278. The Indian tigresses firme peace enjoy.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, II. 117. She turned on him like a tigress at bay.
2. fig. A fierce, cruel, or tiger-like woman: cf. TIGER sb. 4.
1700. Motteux, Quix., I. IV. iv. II. 400. I never will give any body reason to call me Tigress and Lioness.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tigress, a ranting Woman, a cruel Mistress.
1871. M. Collins, Marq. & Merch., I. iii. 121. The proper subjugation of the young heiress and tigress.
† b. A vulgarly or obtrusively overdressed woman: cf. TIGER 7. Obs.
1836. New Monthly Mag., XLVIII. 460. Tigresses, too, shone in a near approach to nudity, in Greek draperies and a Brutus wig.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tigress-heart, -like adj.
1844. Louisa S. Costello, Béarn & Pyrenees, II. 341. Adieu, tigress-heart! Shepherdess without affection.
1910. Q. Rev., Jan., 13. Started in tigress-like revenge by a lady of quality.