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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



... working, he heard nothing, and paid no attention, when some one stopped behind him. He had turned accidentally, humming to himself in the sheer joy of his task, when the presence of the stranger caused him to blush furiously beneath his tan. He drew himself up, like a soldier to attention. He had never seen the head of the firm that employed him, but he had heard a young Englishman describe him as "looking like a wooden man just coming into life," so that he was enabled to recognize ...
— The Wild Olive • Basil King
... next morning, there was not a vestige of it left, save an extra brilliance in the clear air, while the engines were pounding away in a brave effort to bring them into Lisbon by the schedule. As noon approached, and the pale tan of the coast line grew upon them, all was animation on board, for any landing when voyaging by sea, is an event, and especially so when the stay is to be of ...
— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... ve trinked so comforble, like boogs in any roog, De trompets blowed tan da ra dei, und dere come in a Maskenzug, A peaudiful brocession, soul-raisin' and sooplime, De marmorbilds of de heroes of de ...
— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland
... had passed from sight he stood like a bit of a fantastic figure cut from stone. Then a tremor shook him from head to foot, and when it came slowly about Caleb saw that his small face was even whiter than it had been before beneath its coat of tan and powdery dust. ...
— Then I'll Come Back to You • Larry Evans
... a capital diversion; and as usual the Leatherneck bested the Britisher, in seven rounds. O'Higgins returned to town and made a night of it, nothing very wild, nothing very desperate. A modest drinking bout which had its windup in a fan-tan house over in Kowloon, where O'Higgins tussled with varying fortune ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath


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