Definition of "tickle the dragon's tail" in English

Verb

1. To do something that has a risk of going catastrophically wrong.

   • Climbing so close to an erupting volcano was tickling the dragon's tail.

2. To annoy an irritable person.

   • Don't tell him the headline's misprinted; you don't want to tickle the dragon's tail.

3. To bring two subcritical masses close together in order to find the edge of criticality.

   • The laboratory head tickles the dragon's tail whenever we have guests as a show of machismo.