tar¹ Definition
tar (tär)
noun
- a thick, sticky, brown to black liquid with a pungent odor, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood, coal, peat, shale, etc.: tars are composed of hydrocarbons and their derivatives, and are used for protecting and preserving surfaces, in making various organic compounds, etc.
- loosely any of the solids in smoke, as from tobacco
Etymology: ME terre < OE teru < PGmc *terw(i)a-, substance from trees < IE base *deru-, tree
transitive verb tarred, tar′·ring
to cover or smear with or as with tar
adjective
- of or like tar
- covered with tar; tarred
tar¹ Idioms
tar and feather
☆to cover (a person) with tar and feathers as in punishment by mob action
tarred with the same brush
or tarred with the same stickhaving similar faults or obnoxious traits
tar² Definition
tar (tär)
noun
Informal a sailor
Etymology: < tar(paulin)
tar Synonyms
tar
n.
Tar Hacker Definition
See Also: Compression.
tar Usage Examples
Object
road: Access: By way of good hard dirt tracks of a few km from the tarred road.
Converse of object
- melt: The next morning there was a large hole in the road as the heat from the bonfire had melted the tar!
- burn: By now the heat of the day was starting to burn the tar on the roads.
- beat: With water the fortunes are reversed the toffee beats the tar.
Adjective modifier
- crude: In 1817, the GLCC decided to process all its crude tar itself, instead of selling it.
- birch: There are historical records referring to the use of birch bark tar to relieve sore throats.
- jolly: Stretch'd along the deck like logs - Bear a hand, you jolly tar, you!
Modifies a noun
- -xvf: Unpacked it with gunzip and the run the tar -xvf comman on it.
- xf: Use gunzip -c filename.tar.gz | tar xf - then type make to compile the program.
- cigarette: There's been a move toward low tar cigarettes.
- macadam: The pavements are cobbles, and tar macadam on the road was unknown.
- distiller: The tar distillers could not at first supply it in sufficient quantity or of the required purity.
- barrel: In the same era that spawned the Newark tar barrel incident equally rowdy goings on could be found in the villages around the town.
Noun used with modifier
- coal: Many of these stains were coal tar dyes developed in a dazzling array for the textile industry.
- mg: Low tar cigarettes ( defined as those yielding less than 10 mg tar ) began to take an increasing market share.
- bark: There are historical records referring to the use of birch bark tar to relieve sore throats.
- cigarette: The tar reduction study: randomized trial of the effect of cigarette tar yield reduction on compensatory smoking.
- pine: In the 19th century, fishermen still caulked ( filled the gaps in ) their boats with a mixture of pine tar and moss.
- wood: Wood creosote derived from wood tar differs in composition from coal tar.
Preposition: with
brush: In the same way many decent Germans were tarred with the brush of Adolf.
Browse dictionary entries near tar
- tar baby ›
- tar paper ›
- tar sands ›
- taradiddle ›
- tarama ›
- taramasalata ›
- tarantella ›
- Tarantino, Quentin ›
- tarantism ›
- Taranto ›

