[f. TIGER sb. + -ISM.]
1. The qualities or characteristics of a ‘tiger’ (TIGER sb. 7); vulgar ostentation or affectation; pretentiousness, ‘side,’ ‘swagger.’ ? Obs.
1836. New Monthly Mag., XLVIII. 455. We have the neologismal appellatives, ‘tiger,’ and ‘tigerism,’—words of great intensity and signification, without which it would be impossible to get on for ‘one calendar day’ in genteel society.
1863. R. H. Gronow, Remin., II. 144. All his imitators fell between the Scylla and Charybdis of tigerism and charlatanism.
1868. Lever, Bramleighs, I. x. 137. His lordship now placed his hat on his head, slightly on one side. It was the ‘tigerism’ of a past period.
2. The condition and functions of a ‘tiger’ or juvenile groom (TIGER sb. 6).
1846. Mrs. Gore, Eng. Char. (1852), 117. The nature and attributes of tigerism, however, as set forth by the gallant captain, were far from unsatisfactory.
