tank
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tæŋk/
ipa: [ˈtʰeɪŋk]
rhymes: -æŋk
Forms: form: tanks
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: The propane is stored in these tanks.
text: The tank contains unfiltered water. You really shouldn't drink from that.
text: 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.
ref: 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 29:
glosses: A closed container for liquids or gases.
examples: text: The contractors installed a new tank with gorgeous fish and corals.
text: The ore slurries are directed into an open tank outside the excavation site.
glosses: An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids.
examples: text: The tanks are full and the grass is high.
ref: 1896, Henry Lawson, Out Back:
glosses: A pond, pool, or small lake (either natural or artificial).
examples: text: We have brought the van to a garage after we found a leak in the tank.
glosses: The fuel reservoir of a vehicle.
examples: text: I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York.
glosses: The amount held by a container; a tankful.
examples: text: The journalist mistook the self-propelled artillery vehicle for a tank.
text: Few remember the female tanks that were produced between the World Wars.
text: Tank beats everything! Oh, man! I could do this all day!
ref: 2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: The Ark:
glosses: An armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a gun designed for direct fire, and moving on caterpillar tracks.
glosses: A reservoir or dam.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A structure of tightly overlapping leaves used by some bromeliads to retain water.
glosses: A very muscular and physically imposing person; somebody who is built like a tank.
glosses: A bouncer or doorman.
examples: text: The paladin can make for a decent tank, but I recommend that you get a class with better taunting skills.
topics: video-games
qualifier: roleplaying games; board games; roleplaying games; board games
glosses: 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).
examples: text: drunk tank
text: The sheriff threw us in the tank without charges!
text: 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.
ref: 1985 April 13, Philip Brasfield, “Echoes Inside of What's Outside”, in Gay Community News, page 4:
text: It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank / An old man said to me, “Won't see another one”
ref: 1987, Shane MacGowan, Jem Finer, “Fairytale of New York”, in If I Should Fall from Grace with God, performed by The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl:
glosses: A prison cell, or prison generally.
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: A metaphorical place where a player goes to contemplate a decision; see in the tank.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1941 September, “The Why and the Wherefore: The Longest Tank Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, pages 431–432:
text: 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.
ref: 1952 February, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Wessex”, in Railway Magazine, page 133:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: Ellipsis of tank engine or tank locomotive.
examples: text: T-BACK COTTON TANK
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2008, Nora Roberts, Tribute, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 206:
text: I was wearing a tank and some cotton pants.
ref: 2022, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Body Becoming: A Path to Our Liberation, Minneapolis, Minn.: Broadleaf Books, 1517 Media, →ISBN:
text: 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.
ref: 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 10 Aug 2023:
topics: business
clothing
fashion
lifestyle
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: Ellipsis of tank top.
Synonyms: sense: military fighting vehicle
word: battle tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: combat tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armour
topics: military
war
government
politics
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: tango
Hypernyms: sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armoured fighting vehicle
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armored fighting vehicle
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: AFV
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armoured combat vehicle
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armored combat vehicle
Hyponyms: sense: military fighting vehicle
word: infantry tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: cavalry tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: fast tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: cruiser tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: superheavy tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: tankette
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: bobbin tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: light tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: medium tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: heavy tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: main battle tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: MBT
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: flail tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: flame tank
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: flamethrower tank
Coordinate terms: sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armoured car
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armoured train
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armoured personnel carrier
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: armored personnel carrier
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: APC
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: infantry fighting vehicle
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: IFV
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: self-propelled gun
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: SPG
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: tank destroyer
sense: military fighting vehicle
word: assault gun
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: antitank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: anti-tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: ballast tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: battle tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: bobbin tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: built like a tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: buoyancy tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: cavalry tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: combat tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: cruiser tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: dipping tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: drop tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: drunk tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: dunk tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: empty the tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: expansion tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: fast tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: female tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: fish tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: flail tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: flame tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: flamethrower tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: flotation tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: gas tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: gunbarrel tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: heavy tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: holding tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: Imhoff tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: infantry tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: in the tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: isolation tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: landing craft tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: leave nothing in the tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: light tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: main battle tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: male tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: medium tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: oxygen tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: Pachuca tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: pannier tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: peekaboo tank top
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: petrol tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: retention tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: saddle tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: saddletank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: septic tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: settlement tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: side tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: sugar in one's tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: sump tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: superheavy tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: surge tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tankbuster
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank car
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank controls
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank destroyer
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank drama
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank engine
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tanker
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tankette
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank farm
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tankful
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tankini
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank iron
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank killer
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tanklike
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank loaf
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank locomotive
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank park
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tankship
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tankside
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank sinker
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank-sinker
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank slapper
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank-slapper
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank-stand
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tankstand
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank stand
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank suit
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank top
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank town
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank trap
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank truck
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank ventilator
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank wagon
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tank-worm
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: think tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tiger in one's tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: Tissot tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: touch tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: tumbler tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: water tank
sense: Terms derived from tank (noun)
word: Yank tank