tiger

   Typically used by a woman to a man who is a virile lover, as in The Exhibitionist, by Henry Sutton, where ‘Here I am, tiger’ is said by a woman lying on a bed, waiting for her partner to join her. A man uses it to a woman in John Updike’s Rabbit Redux, again with reference to energetic lovemaking. The term can also be used in a complimentary way to a child, implying that the child concerned has lots of energy. It is used in this way in Ordinary People, by Judith Guest, where it is addressed to a young boy by an adult, but it could easily be used to a girl. There is, of course, no sexual innuendo present when used in this way.