catch a Tartar
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English
Alternative forms
Verb
catch a Tartar (third-person singular simple present catches a Tartar, present participle catching a Tartar, simple past and past participle caught a Tartar)
- (archaic, colloquial) To discover someone is much stronger, much more dangerous, and/or much more violent than they appeared at first, especially after laying hands on them or (thieves' cant, obsolete) in a failed attempt to rob someone who turns out to be a stronger robber.
- 1674, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, §1.3.175:
- Now thou hast got me for a Tartar,
To make m 'gainst my will take quarter.
- 1680, John Dryden, Kind Keeper, §5.1.62:
- What a Tartar have I caught!
- 1720, Daniel Defoe, Life of Captain Singleton, page 281:
- Tell him, if he try, he may catch a Tartar.
- (archaic, colloquial, figurative) To discover someone who cannot be controlled or disposed of more generally.
- 1897, Florence Marryat, chapter XIV, in The Blood of the Vampire:
- You must give up flirting, my boy, or if I mistake not, you'll find you've caught a Tartar.
References
- “Tartar | Tatar, n².”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. - (discover the true personality): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
- “Tartar”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
