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Tan   /tæn/   Listen
noun
Tan  n.  See Picul.


Tan  n.  
1.
The bark of the oak, and some other trees, bruised and broken by a mill, for tanning hides; so called both before and after it has been used. Called also tan bark.
2.
A yellowish-brown color, like that of tan.
3.
A brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun; as, hands covered with tan.
Tan bed (Hort.), a bed made of tan; a bark bed.
Tan pickle, the liquor used in tanning leather.
Tan spud, a spud used in stripping bark for tan from trees.
Tan stove. See Bark stove, under Bark.
Tan vat, a vat in which hides are steeped in liquor with tan.


verb
Tan  v. t.  (past & past part. tanned; pres. part. tanning)  
1.
To convert (the skin of an animal) into leather, as by the usual process of steeping it in an infusion of oak or some other bark, whereby it is impregnated with tannin, or tannic acid (which exists in several species of bark), and is thus rendered firm, durable, and in some degree impervious to water. Note: The essential result in tanning is due to the fact that the tannins form, with gelatins and albuminoids, a series of insoluble compounds which constitute leather. Similar results may be produced by the use of other reagents in place of tannin, as alum, and some acids or chlorides, which are employed in certain processes of tanning.
2.
To make brown; to imbrown, as by exposure to the rays of the sun; as, to tan the skin.
3.
To thrash or beat; to flog; to switch; as, to tan a disobedient child's hide. (Colloq.)


Tan  v. i.  To get or become tanned.


adjective
Tan  adj.  (compar. tanner; superl. tannest)  Of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.
Black and tan. See under Black, a.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Tan" Quotes from Famous Books



... reduced to two—the big black-and-gray dog pup and one black-and-tan bitch pup. The reduction was probably a beneficent one for Desdemona, for her flanks were very hollow now. Two puppies were quite enough for her to nourish, more especially since one of the two already demanded as much nourishment as any two ordinary youngsters of his age. The ...
— Jan - A Dog and a Romance • A. J. Dawson
... of our ancestors. Our verb to curry (leather) comes from Old Fr. correer[73] (courroyer), to make ready, put in order, which represents a theoretical *con-red-are, the root syllable of which is Germanic and cognate with our ready. Ger. gerben, to tan, Old High Ger. garawen, to make ready, is a derivative of gar, ready, complete, now used only as an adverb meaning "quite," but cognate with ...
— The Romance of Words (4th ed.) • Ernest Weekley
... were in full-dress uniform Friday night, so I know just what I am talking about, scratches and all. Every woman appeared in her finest gown. I wore my nile-green silk, which I am afraid showed off my splendid coat of tan only ...
— Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888 • Frances M.A. Roe
... the fishing season there is often the close smell of herring-scale, of bow tar and the bark-tan of the fishing nets; but this stair I climbed for the wherewithal was unusually sweet-odoured and clean, because on the first floor was the house of Provost Brown—a Campbell and a Gael, but burdened by accident with a Lowland-sounding cognomen. He had the whole flat ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro
... the mermaid, and without a moment's hesitation Mary Louise followed her into the water and out beyond the breakers, swimming as easily as if she had always been a little mermaid, instead of a girl who wore tan shoes. ...
— The Iceberg Express • David Magie Cory


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