Mother tidier than a tiger? (3-5)
I believe the answer is:
man-eater
'a tiger?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'mother tidier' is the wordplay.
'mother' becomes 'ma' (ma can mean mother).
'tidier' becomes 'neater' ('neat' can be similar in meaning to 'tidy').
'ma'+'neater'='MAN-EATER'
'than' is the link.
(Other definitions for man-eater that I've seen before include "Highly-sexed, domineering woman" , "Animal killing and feeding on humans" , "Voracious woman!" , "Cannibal" , "Animal known to consume humans" .)