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tank

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Tank, tänk, and tànk

English

A military tank.

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Portuguese tanque (“tank, liquid container”), from an Indo-Aryan language such as Gujarati ટાંકી (ṭā̃kī, “cistern”) or Marathi टांकी (ṭāṅkī). Compare the Arabic verb اِسْتَنْقَعَ (istanqaʕa, “to become stagnant, to stagnate”).

In the sense of armoured vehicle, first attested in 1915, prototypes were described as tanks for carrying water to disguise their nature as well as due to physical resemblance.

Noun

tank (plural tanks)

  1. A closed container for liquids or gases.
    The propane is stored in these tanks.
    The tank contains unfiltered water. You really shouldn't drink from that.
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 29:
      The other room was a kitchen, with an open fireplace, a safe, a dresser and a tin sink, with a tap from the tank outside.
  2. An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids.
    The contractors installed a new tank with gorgeous fish and corals.
    The ore slurries are directed into an open tank outside the excavation site.
  3. A pond, pool, or small lake (either natural or artificial).[1]
  4. The fuel reservoir of a vehicle.
    We have brought the van to a garage after we found a leak in the tank.
  5. The amount held by a container; a tankful.
    I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York.
  7. An armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a gun designed for direct fire, and moving on caterpillar tracks.
    The journalist mistook the self-propelled artillery vehicle for a tank.
    Few remember the female tanks that were produced between the World Wars.
  8. (Australia, India) A reservoir or dam.
  9. (botany) A structure of tightly overlapping leaves used by some bromeliads to retain water.
  10. (colloquial) A very muscular and physically imposing person; somebody who is built like a tank.
  11. (UK, slang, dated, by extension) A bouncer or doorman.
  12. (roleplaying games, board games, video games) A unit or character designed primarily around damage absorption and holding the attention of the enemy (as opposed to dealing damage, healing, or other tasks).
    The paladin can make for a decent tank, but I recommend that you get a class with better taunting skills.
  13. (US, slang) A prison cell, or prison generally.
    drunk tank
    The sheriff threw us in the tank without charges!
    • 1985 April 13, Philip Brasfield, “Echoes Inside of What's Outside”, in Gay Community News, page 4:
      By the nature of imprisonment, one is perceived by free society as something subhuman. By the nature of being on a protective custody tank, a "gay tank", everyone there is seen as members of the lowest caste in the system.
    • 1987, Shane MacGowan, Jem Finer (lyrics and music), “Fairytale of New York”, in If I Should Fall from Grace with God, performed by The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl:
      It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank / An old man said to me, “Won't see another one”
  14. (poker, slang) A metaphorical place where a player goes to contemplate a decision; see in the tank.
  15. (rail transport) Short for tank engine and tank locomotive.
    • 1941 September, “The Why and the Wherefore: The Longest Tank Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, pages 431–432:
      Before their conversion to 4-6-0 tender locomotives, the L.B. & S.C.R. Baltic tank engines Nos. 330 to 334 measured 50 ft. 5 in. over buffers; the nearest present approach to this figure is the 49 ft. 10½ in. of the remaining ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire Hughes type 4-cylinder 4-6-4 tanks of the L.M.S.R. The Furness and G. & S.W.R. 4-6-4 tanks of the same company, all now scrapped, were, respectively, 49 ft. 1½ in. and 47 ft. 8 in. long.
    • 1952 February, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Wessex”, in Railway Magazine, page 133:
      Representing the older types now are some Stroudley 0-6-0 tanks, while a Drummond "C14" 0-4-0 tank might still be pottering about on the Town Quays as of yore.
  17. (clothing) Short for tank top.
    • 1990 November 18, “Earl’s Reebok Sale for the Holidays”, in Granite City Press-Record Journal, volume 6, number 46, Granite City, Ill., →OCLC, page 8A:
      T-BACK COTTON TANK
    • 2008, Nora Roberts, Tribute, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 206:
      It pleased her more than she could say to know she walked on her own land, over dewed grass, wearing a tank and cotton pajama pants.
    • 2022, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Body Becoming: A Path to Our Liberation, Minneapolis, Minn.: Broadleaf Books, 1517 Media, →ISBN:
      I was wearing a tank and some cotton pants.
    • 2023 August 9, Brooke Kato, “Gen Z loves the ‘wife beater’ tee — but they’re canceling the name”, in New York Post‎, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-10:
      On TikTok, #wifepleaser boasts more than 11.4 million views, while #wifepleasertank has racked up 13.9 million. […] Thanks to TikTok, there has been a mass adoption of the term “wife pleaser” in an attempt to rebrand the tank.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
Terms derived from tank (noun)
Descendants
Descendants
Translations

Verb

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

  1. To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet.
    • 2008 October, Davy Rothbart, “How I caught up with dad”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 112:
      He told me about all the odd jobs he'd taken after I was born, when Michigan's economy was tanking. For one, he crisscrossed the Midwest buying old carpets from dentists' offices.
    • 2022 October 5, “Network News: Private sector's role in a publicly-owned railway”, in RAIL, number 967, page 16:
      "[...] If the economy has tanked... then we don't want to over-promise and under-deliver."
  2. (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.
  3. (transitive) To put (fuel, etc.) into a tank.
    • 1913, Geoffrey Martin, Industrial and manufacturing chemistry:
      Sometimes oils are tanked for months or years at a time (e.g., linseed oil).
  4. To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.
    • 2006 March 6, Michael Farber, “Swede Success”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, Sports Illustrated, archived from the original on 4 November 2012:
      Beforehand, Swedish [national ice hockey team] coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson had ruminated about tanking against Slovakia to avoid powerful Canada or the Czechs in the quarters [i.e., quarterfinals of the 2006 Winter Olympic tournament], telling Swedish television, "One is cholera, the other the plague."
  5. (fandom slang) To resist damage; to be attacked without being hurt.
    • 2015 March 1, DudeFuckMath, “Bane [DC] vs Iron Fist [Marvel]”, in Reddit (r/whowouldwin)‎, retrieved 2017-06-19:
      Unless Bane can tank Helicarrier-busting explosions I'm not sure how he stands a chance.
    • 2016 June 2, MercinWithAMouth, “Superman Stongest Feat Ever”, in Comic Vine Forums‎, retrieved 2017-06-19:
      A weakened Superman tanked an explosion 50 times larger than the Kepler's Supernova and the electromagnetic shock wave hit him.
    • 2016 July 22, Si-Phon Dom, “Big Barda Vs She Hulk”, in Comics Amino‎, retrieved 2017-06-19:
      Barda could BFR and I doubt She hulk is tanking a blow from her rod, so she takes.
  6. (originally poker, slang) To contemplate a decision for a long time; to go in the tank.
  7. To put or keep in a tank.
    Concrete below ground must be fully tanked to prevent water uptake.
Derived terms
Translations

References

  1. [1]
    “tank”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Etymology 2

Noun

tank (plural tanks)

  1. A small Indian dry measure, averaging 240 grains in weight.[1]
  2. A Bombay weight of 72 grains, for pearls.[2]

References

  1. [1]
    “tank”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
  2. [2]
    1858, Peter Lund Simmonds, The Dictionary of Trade Products

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

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

  1. (Singapore, informal) To stand; to tolerate.

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