Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A large, often metallic container for holding or storing liquids or gases.
- n. The amount that this container can hold: buy a tank of gas.
- n. A usually artificial pool, pond, reservoir, or cistern, especially one used to hold water for drinking or for irrigation.
- n. An enclosed, heavily armored combat vehicle that is armed with cannon and machine guns and moves on continuous tracks.
- n. A tank top.
- n. Slang A jail or jail cell.
- transitive v. To place, store, or process in a tank.
- intransitive v. Slang To suffer a sudden decline or failure: "Steady investors . . . kept their heads when the stock market tanked in October 1987” ( Burton G. Malkiel).
- tank up Slang To drink to the point of intoxication.
- tank up To fill the tank of a motor vehicle with gasoline.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A container for liquids or gases.
- n. The fuel reservoir of a vehicle.
- n. The amount held by a container; a tankful.
- n. An armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a gun in a turret, and moving on caterpillar tracks.
- n. A reservoir or dam.
- n. A large metal container, usually placed near a wind-driven water pump, in an animal pen or field. By extension a small pond for the same purpose.
- n. A very muscular and physically imposing person. Somebody who is built like a tank.
- n. In online and offline role-playing games, a character designed primarily around damage absorption and holding the attention of the enemy with offensive power as a close secondary consideration.
- v. To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet.
- v. To attract the attacks of an enemy target in cooperative team-based combat, so that one's teammates can defeat the enemy in question more efficiently.
- v. To put fuel into a tank
- v. To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A small Indian dry measure, averaging 240 grains in weight; also, a Bombay weight of 72 grains, for pearls.
- n. A large basin or cistern; an artificial receptacle for liquids.
- n. A pond, pool, or small lake, natural or artificial.
- n. a heavily armored combat vehicle which moves on caterpillar treads, rather than wheels. It typically carries a cannon and a heavy machine, and sometimes other weapons. It is the main distinguishing weapon of an armored division.
- n. a jail cell for temporarily holding prisoners, as in a police station.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To fill up (with liquor); hence, to be drunk: usually with up.
- An oral abbreviation for hyperbolic tangent (which see), being an accommodated pronunciation of the written abbreviation tanh.
- To throw, or cause to flow, into a tank.
- To put or plunge into a tank; bathe or steep in a tank.
- n. In glass manufacturing, same as tank-furnace (which see, under furnace).
- n. The stomach.
- n. A pool of deep water, natural or artificial.
- n. A large vessel or structure of wood or metal designed to hold water, oil, or other liquid, or a gas.
- n. In the East Indies, a storage-place for water; a reservoir. Such tanks are used especially for irrigation; but they also serve for storage of water for all purposes during the dry season. Some of them are of great extent, and form lakes, conforming to the natural shape of the ground and covering thousands of acres; others are of square or other regular shape, and form decorative features in pleasure-grounds.
- n. The wild parsnip, Peucedanum (Pastinaca) sativum.
- n. A variant of tang and tang.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. treat in a tank
- v. consume excessive amounts of alcohol
- n. an enclosed armored military vehicle; has a cannon and moves on caterpillar treads
- n. as much as a tank will hold
- n. a freight car that transports liquids or gases in bulk
- n. a large (usually metallic) vessel for holding gases or liquids
- v. store in a tank by causing (something) to flow into it
- n. a cell for violent prisoners
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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The separation of Atlantis from the main tank is AWESOME.
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Does this mean wars now have referees who decide whether or not a tank is allowed to go into battle?
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You'll know precisely how full the tank is at all times.
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After while however weapons must be matched — the best defense against a tank is another tank.
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And he was -- so he was treated to maintain the function of his lungs, and then we took him into what we call the tank room, and cleaned up his wounds, took off the dead tissue and so forth, and put him in a white cream that we use, an antibiotic cream.
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Patty went with her uncle to what he called the tank-room, and there Mr. Barlow discovered that the leak was in a supply pipe which could easily be shut off.
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The solar tank is stainless steel, with an endcap secured by rivets.
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Problem is, the price of a new tank is about what I paid for the entire system in the first place.
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Thanks to their efforts, now calling something a think tank is about as prestigious as saying you won a Grammy.
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Yeah they probably think that a think tank is where they take the detainees at guantanamo to be waterboarded.
marky commented on the word tank
Jamaican slang for 'thank'.
November 6, 2010
Telofy commented on the word tank
Operator of the Nebuchadnezzar in Matrix.
August 14, 2009
bilby commented on the word tank
A town and district in Pakistan.
August 14, 2009