"have the tiger by the tail" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "has the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "having the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "have<has,,had> the tiger by the tail"
      },
      "expansion": "have the tiger by the tail (third-person singular simple present has the tiger by the tail, present participle having the tiger by the tail, simple past and past participle had the tiger by the tail)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1965, Frank Herbert, Dune (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 238",
          "text": "\"We have the tiger by the tail,\" Paul whispered. \"We can't go down, can't land…and I don't think I can lift us out of this. We'll have to ride it out.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a difficult or dangerous situation in which one ideally should not remain, but from which one cannot withdraw."
      ],
      "id": "en-have_the_tiger_by_the_tail-en-verb-0JFy~EsT",
      "links": [
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "dangerous",
          "dangerous"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "ideally",
          "ideally"
        ],
        [
          "remain",
          "remain"
        ],
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be in a difficult or dangerous situation in which one ideally should not remain, but from which one cannot withdraw."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "have the wolf by the ear"
        },
        {
          "word": "have a tiger by the tail"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-have the tiger by the tail.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/En-au-have_the_tiger_by_the_tail.ogg/En-au-have_the_tiger_by_the_tail.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/En-au-have_the_tiger_by_the_tail.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "have the tiger by the tail"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "has the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "having the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had the tiger by the tail",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "have<has,,had> the tiger by the tail"
      },
      "expansion": "have the tiger by the tail (third-person singular simple present has the tiger by the tail, present participle having the tiger by the tail, simple past and past participle had the tiger by the tail)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1965, Frank Herbert, Dune (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 238",
          "text": "\"We have the tiger by the tail,\" Paul whispered. \"We can't go down, can't land…and I don't think I can lift us out of this. We'll have to ride it out.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a difficult or dangerous situation in which one ideally should not remain, but from which one cannot withdraw."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "dangerous",
          "dangerous"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "ideally",
          "ideally"
        ],
        [
          "remain",
          "remain"
        ],
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be in a difficult or dangerous situation in which one ideally should not remain, but from which one cannot withdraw."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-have the tiger by the tail.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/En-au-have_the_tiger_by_the_tail.ogg/En-au-have_the_tiger_by_the_tail.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/En-au-have_the_tiger_by_the_tail.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "have the wolf by the ear"
    },
    {
      "word": "have a tiger by the tail"
    }
  ],
  "word": "have the tiger by the tail"
}