Tank definition
A heavily armored, self-propelled combat vehicle armed with guns and moving on full tractor treads.
noun
(gaming, video games, online gaming) 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.
noun
(informal) To suffer a sudden decline or failure.
The stock market tanked yesterday.
verb
The amount that this container can hold.
Buy a tank of gas.
noun
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(slang) A jail cell, esp. one for new prisoners charged with misdemeanors.
noun
To put, store, or process in a tank.
verb
To fail or go into a sharp decline.
verb
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A closed container for liquids or gases.
noun
An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids.
noun
The fuel reservoir of a vehicle.
noun
The amount held by a container; a tankful.
I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York.
noun
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(Southwestern US, chiefly Texas) A large metal container, usually placed near a wind-driven water pump, in an animal pen or field.
noun
(Southwestern US, chiefly Texas) By extension a small pond for the same purpose.
noun
To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet.
verb
(video games) 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.
verb
To put fuel into a tank.
verb
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To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.
verb
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
noun
(slang) A very muscular and physically imposing person. Somebody who is built like a tank.
noun
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A usually artificial pool, pond, reservoir, or cistern, especially one used to hold water for drinking or for irrigation.
noun
An enclosed, heavily armored combat vehicle that is armed with cannon and machine guns and moves on continuous tracks.
noun
A tank top.
noun
(slang) A jail or jail cell.
noun
A large, often metallic container for holding or storing liquids or gases.
noun
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To place, store, or process in a tank.
verb
(archaic) In India, a natural or artificial pool or pond used for water storage.
noun
Any large container for liquid or gas.
A gasoline tank, a swimming tank.
noun
(slang) To lose (a game, match, etc.) deliberately or due to a lack of effort.
verb
To lose, esp. as a result of a lack of effort.
verb
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in the tank
- In reserve:A runner who didn't have enough in the tank to hold the lead.
- In a state of decline or failure:Stocks have been in the tank for months.
- Enthusiastically partial; strongly favoring:A reporter accused of being in the tank for a candidate.
idiom
go in the tank
- to lose or fail badly or on purpose
idiom
(informal) tank up
- to supply with or get a full tank of fuel
- to drink much liquor
idiom
Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Origin of tank
- Partly from Gujarati tānkh cistern (from Sanskrit taḍāgaḥ pond) (perhaps of Dravidian origin) and partly from Portuguese tanque reservoir (variant of estanque) (from estancar to dam up) (from Vulgar Latin stanticāre stanch1)
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From Portuguese tanque (“tank, liquid container"), originally from Indian vernacular for a large artificial water reservoir, cistern, pool, etc., for example, Gujarati ટાંકી (ṭāṅkÄ«), or Marathi [Devanagari?] [script?] (take). Compare the Arabic verb استنقع (istanqáʕa, “to become stagnant, to stagnate").
From Wiktionary
- In the sense of armoured vehicle, to disguise their nature, prototypes were described as tanks for carrying water (1915).
From Wiktionary