tank

Archaic in India, a natural or artificial pool or pond used for water storage
any large container for liquid or gas: a gasoline tank, a swimming tank
1. tank top
2. tank suit
Origin of tank
name orig. used for purpose of secrecy during manufacture
a heavily armored, self-propelled combat vehicle armed with guns and moving on full tractor treads
Slang a jail cell, esp. one for new prisoners charged with misdemeanors

Origin of tank

tanksense from Gujarati t?nkh; other senses from or influenced, influence by Spanish and Portuguese tanque, aphetic from estanque, a pool, stoppage of flow from estancar, to stop the flow of from Vulgar Latin an unverified form stanticare, to staunch

to put, store, or process in a tank
Slang to lose (a game, match, etc.) deliberately or due to a lack of effort

to fail or go into a sharp decline
to lose, esp. as a result of a lack of effort

tank Idioms

go in the tank

Slang to lose or fail badly or on purpose

tank up

Informal

to supply with or get a full tank of fuel
to drink much liquor

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"tank." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Tank>.

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tank. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Tank

tank

noun

a. A large, often metallic container for holding or storing liquids or gases.
b. The amount that this container can hold: buy a tank of gas.
A usually artificial pool, pond, reservoir, or cistern, especially one used to hold water for drinking or for irrigation.
A usually glass-walled container in which live fish, reptiles, or other animals are kept.
An enclosed, heavily armored combat vehicle that is armed with cannon and machine guns and moves on continuous tracks.
A tank top.
Slang A jail or jail cell.

verb

tanked, tank·ing, tanks

verb

transitive

To place, store, or process in a tank.

verb

intransitive

Informal To suffer a sudden decline or failure: The stock market tanked yesterday.

Phrasal Verbs: tank up Slang To drink to the point of intoxication.To fill the tank of a motor vehicle with gasoline.

Origin of tank

Partly from an Indic source such as Gujarati &tlowdot;ā&mlowdot;khī cistern and &tlowdot;ā&mlowdot;khī,&mlowdot; reservoir or Marathi &tlowdot;ā&mlowdot;ke&mlowdot; cistern, reservoir ( all from Prakrit &tlowdot;anka ditch, reservoir, of unknown origin ) and partly from Portuguese tanque reservoir ( variant of estanque ) ( from estancar to dam up ) ( from Vulgar Latin stanticāre ; see stanch¹. ) Noun, sense 4, from the fact that in WWI the British army tried to conceal the development and transport of such armored vehicles by referring to them as water tanks in documents and communications

Related Forms:

tank′ful′
noun

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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MLA Style

"tank." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Tank>.

APA Style

tank. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Tank

Noun

(plural tanks)

A closed container for liquids or gases.
An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids.
The fuel reservoir of a vehicle.
The amount held by a container; a tankful.
I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York.
An armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a gun in a turret, and moving on caterpillar tracks.
(Australian and Indian English) A reservoir or dam.
(Southwestern US, chiefly Texas) A large metal container, usually placed near a wind-driven water pump, in an animal pen or field.
(Southwestern US, chiefly Texas) By extension a small pond for the same purpose.
(slang) A very muscular and physically imposing person. Somebody who is built like a tank.
(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.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present tanks, present participle tanking, simple past and past participle tanked)

To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet.
(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.
To put fuel into a tank
To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.

Origin

From Portuguese tanque (“tank, liquid container"), originally from Indian vernacular for a large artificial water reservoir, cistern, pool, etc., for example, Gujarati àªŸàª¾àª‚àª•à«€ (á¹Äá¹…kÄ«), or Marathi [Devanagari?] [script?] (take). Compare the Arabic verb Ø§Ø³ØªÙ†Ù‚Ø¹ (istanqÃ¡Ê•a, “to become stagnant, to stagnate").

In the sense of armoured vehicle, to disguise their nature, prototypes were described as tanks for carrying water (1915).

Noun

(plural tanks)

A small Indian dry measure, averaging 240 grains in weight.
A Bombay weight of 72 grains, for pearls.

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.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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Link to this page

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MLA Style

"tank." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Tank>.

APA Style

tank. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Tank

tank

tank

tank

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