tanker
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtæŋkə(ɹ)/
rhymes: -æŋkə(ɹ)
Forms: form: tankers
Etymology: From tank + -er.
Senses: examples: text: The channel at Chan-chiang is being dredged to a depth of 50 feet enabling tankers of 70,000 tons to call.
ref: 1976 March, JeNelle Matheson, Construction Equipment A Market Assessment for the People's Republic of China, U.S. Department of Commerce, →OCLC, page 8:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A tankship, a vessel used to transport large quantities of fluid.
topics: automotive
transport
vehicles
synonyms: tanker truck
tank truck
coordinate_terms: tank car
tank wagon
glosses: A motor truck with a tank to hold bulk liquid (with or without internal baffles).
examples: text: Nor is the government facing a strike by tanker drivers, as was the case in early 1979 during the winter of discontent.
ref: 2021 September 23, Larry Elliott, “Petrol disruption will fuel fears of new winter of discontent”, in The Guardian:
topics: automotive
transport
vehicles
glosses: A fuel tanker, petrol tanker, road tanker.
examples: text: Without the KC-46 tankers orbiting in friendly airspace, our fighters would've run out of fuel long before reaching the combat zone.
text: On Friday night, eight US Air Force KC-135 Stratotankers took off from Altus, Oklahoma, according to data from FlightRadar24. Over Kansas the tankers refueled two groups of planes, identified on air traffic control audio by their callsigns MYTEE11 FLT and MYTEE21 FLT. The callsign MYTEE has previously been associated with special activity flights by B-2 bombers, and multiple flight trackers on social media said the planes being refueled were B-2 bombers out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
ref: 2025 June 21, Thomas Bordeaux, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, “US moves B-2 bombers as Trump weighs Iran options”, in CNN:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
war
synonyms: air tanker
tanker aircraft
glosses: An aircraft carrying a large supply of jet fuel or avgas for aerial refueling of other aircraft, plus equipment allowing the in-air transfer of fuel.
examples: text: While our ground teams cut firebreaks in the brush, the tankers kept the fire in the mountains at bay with frequent drops of water and retardant.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
firefighting
government
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: An aircraft built or modified to carry water and/or fire retardant for dropping on wildfires.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A tank car.
examples: text: On February 19, 1943, American tankers felt the full wrath of the German Army in North Africa when its tank-led spearhead punched a 2-mile-wide hole through American lines at Faid Pass in Tunisia, […]
ref: 2014, Michael Green, American Tanks & AFVs of World War II, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 70:
topics: government
military
politics
war
synonyms: tankist
zipperhead
hypernyms: crewmember
trooper
glosses: Member of a tank crew, or of an armoured unit.
examples: text: I swung the tanker around just in time to take off with the lip.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
surfing
glosses: A longboard.
Derived terms: air tanker
oil tanker
supertanker
tanker aircraft
tanker boot
tanker truck
think-tanker
Related terms: topics: military
war
government
politics
word: crewman