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Entry 9 senses · 5 variants Webster, 1913

Tan

/(tăn)/ · IPA /ˈtæn/
01 n. See Picul.
  1. 1.
    See Picul. See: Picul
02 n. 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 …
  1. 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. Also: tan bark
  2. 2.
    A yellowish-brown color, like that of tan.
  3. 3.
    A brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun; as, hands covered with tan.
Phrases & compounds
Tan bed — 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.
03 a. Of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.
  1. 1.
    Of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.
Phrases & compounds
Black and tan — See under Black, a.
04 v. t. 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 i…
imp. & p. p. Tanned; p. pr. & vb. n. Tanning
  1. 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.
  2. 2.
    To make brown; to imbrown, as by exposure to the rays of the sun; as, to tan the skin.
  3. 3.
    To thrash or beat; to flog; to switch; as, to tan a disobedient child's hide.[Colloq.]
05 v. i. To get or become tanned.
  1. 1.
    To get or become tanned.