tan

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

tan, n. [Chin.].

 See Picul.  [1913 Webster]

tan, n. [F. tan, perhaps fr. Armor. tann an oak, oak bar; or of Teutonic origin; cf. G. tanne a fir, OHG. tanna a fir, oak, MHG. tan a forest. Cf. Tawny.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  A yellowish-brown color, like that of tan.  [1913 Webster]
•  A brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun; as, hands covered with tan.  [1913 Webster]

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.

tan, a. 

 Of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.  [1913 Webster]

Black and tan. See under Black, a.

tan, v. t. [F. tanner, LL. tannare. See Tan, n.].

•  To convert (the skin of an animal) into leather, as by 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.  [1913 Webster]

  " 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."  [1913 Webster]
•  To make brown; to imbrown, as by exposure to the rays of the sun; as, to tan the skin.  [1913 Webster]
•  To thrash or beat; to flog; to switch; as, to tan a disobedient child's hide.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

tan, v. i. 

 To get or become tanned.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

tan, n., adj., & v.
--n.
1 a brown skin colour resulting from exposure to ultraviolet light.
2 a yellowish-brown colour.
3 bark, esp. of oak, bruised and used to tan hides.
4 (in full spent tan) tan from which the tannic acid has been extracted, used for covering roads etc.
--adj. yellowish-brown.
--v. (tanned, tanning)
1 tr. & intr. make or become brown by exposure to ultraviolet light.
2 tr. convert (raw hide) into leather by soaking in a liquid containing tannic acid or by the use of mineral salts etc.
3 tr. sl. beat, thrash.

Derivative

tannable adj. tanning n. tannish adj.

tan, abbr. tangent.

THESAURUS

tan

arrange, beige, bronze, brown, brownish, brownish-yellow, brunet, burn, chocolate, cinnamon, clear for action, clear the decks, cocoa, cocoa-brown, coffee, coffee-brown, cure, deploy, drab, dress, dress down, dun, dun-brown, dun-drab, ecru, embrown, fawn, fawn-colored, fix, fix up, flax, fuscous, get ready, give a dressing-down, grege, hazel, hide, infuscate, khaki, larrup, lather, leather, lick, lurid, make arrangements, make preparations, make ready, marshal, mobilize, nut-brown, olive-brown, olive-drab, paddle, plan, prearrange, prep, prepare, pretreat, process, provide, put in shape, ready, ready up, rust, seal, seal-brown, sepia, settle preliminaries, snuff-colored, sorrel, sunburn, suntan, taupe, tawny, toast, toast-brown, treat, trim, try out, umber, umber-colored, wallop, walnut, walnut-brown, welt, whale, yellowish-brown

ROGET THESAURUS

tan

Brown

VB render brown, tan, embrown, bronze.

N brown, bister ocher, sepia, Vandyke brown, brown, bay, dapple, auburn, castaneous, chestnut, nut-brown, cinnamon, russet, tawny, fuscous, chocolate, maroon, foxy, tan, brunette, whitey brown, fawn-colored, snuff-colored, liver-colored, brown as a berry, brown as mahogany, brown as the oak leaves, khaki, sun-burnt, tanned.