subs. (colloquial).—A raff. TIGRISH = dissolute.
1849–50. THACKERAY, Pendennis, xix. A man may have a very good coat of arms, and be a TIGER, my boy … that man is a TIGER, mark my word—a low man. Ibid. (1854), Character Sketches, ‘The Artiste.’ In France, where TIGERISM used to be the fashion among the painters, I make no doubt Carmine would have let his beard and wig grow, and looked the fiercest of the fierce.
1853. BULWER-LYTTON, My Novel, VI. xx. Nothing could be more vagrant, devil-me-carish, and, to use the slang word, TIGRISH, than his whole air.
3. (common).—A smart-liveried boy-groom; ‘a show’ servant. [Cf. TIGER = generic for ornament: e.g., TIGER-bittern, TIGER-cowry, TIGER-frog, TIGER-grass, etc.] Whence (loosely) a man’s out-door servant in contradistinction to a page = a ladies’ attendant.
1827. BULWER-LYTTON, Pelham, xlv. I sent my cab-boy (vulgo TIGER) to enquire … whether the horse was to be sold.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Execution.’
| TIGER Tim Was clean of limb, | |
| His boots were polish’d, his jacket was trim; | |
| With a very smart tie in his smart cravat, | |
| And a little cockade on the top of his hat; | |
| Tallest of boys, or shortest of men, | |
| He stood in his stockings just four feet ten. |
4. (American).—An intensive form of applause; an addition (cf. sense 3) thought to embellish the traditional ‘three cheers’: whence THREE CHEERS AND A TIGER = three cheers wound up by a growl, screech, or howl. [C. J. LELAND: new in 1842].
5. (navvies’).—Streaky bacon.
TO FIGHT THE TIGER, verb. phr. (American).—To gamble with professionals; also (loosely) to play cards. Hence TIGER-HUNTER = a gambler.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 87. The game proceeded, but it was plainly evident that the unsophisticated young TIGER HUNTER had something on his mind.
See BENGAL TIGERS.
