tang
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: tăng
ipa: /tæŋ/
rhymes: -æŋ
Forms: form: tangs
Etymology: From Middle English tange, variant of tonge (“tongs, fang”), from Old Norse tangi (“pointed metal tool”), perhaps related to Old Norse tunga (“tongue”). But see also Middle Dutch tanger (“sharp, tart, pinching”).
Senses: examples: text: a tang of citrus
text: The miraculous air, heady with ozone and made memorably sweet by leagues of wild flowerets, gave tang and savour to the breath.
ref: 1904, O. Henry, The Missing Chord:
synonyms: bite
piquancy
spiciness
twang
zing
antonyms: blandness
dullness
glosses: A refreshingly sharp aroma or flavor.
examples: text: a tang of cellar
text: Wine or cider has a tang of the cask.
synonyms: twang
glosses: A strong or offensive taste; especially, a taste of something extraneous to the thing itself.
examples: text: a tang of pedantry
text: Such proceedings had a strong tang of tyranny.
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
text: a cant of philosophism, and a tang of party politics
ref: 1806, Francis Jeffrey, “Memoirs of Dr. Priestley”, in The Edinburgh Review:
text: What, was it I who bared my heart / Through unrelenting years, / And knew the sting of misery's dart, / The tang of sorrow's tears?
ref: 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, At Sunset Time:
glosses: A sharp, specific flavor or tinge.
examples: text: slip the cable over the tang
text: "And inside the joints, these so-called O-rings are supposed to expand to make a seal—is that right?" ¶ "Yes, sir. In static conditions they should be in direct contact with the tang and clevis and squeezed twenty-thousandths of an inch."
ref: 1988, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character, New York, N.Y.; London: W. W. Norton & Company, →OCLC, page 150:
coordinate_terms: tab#Noun
glosses: A projecting part of an object by means of which it is secured to a handle, or to some other part.
examples: text: full-tang
text: A full-tang knife is strongest against handle breakage, but partial-tang knives are common because of a combination of facts: they are inexpensive, and in some applications any manner of use that would exceed the handle's limit is not an appropriate manner of use.
coordinate_terms: tab#Noun
glosses: A projecting part of an object by means of which it is secured to a handle, or to some other part.
The part of a knife, fork, file, or other instrument or hand tool, which is inserted into the handle.
examples: text: I spent the evening collecting the abandoned nests of birds from a rock face a half league distant, and that night I struck fire from the tang of Terminus Est and boiled the coarse meal (which took a long time to cook, because of the altitude) and ate it.
ref: 1982, Gene Wolfe, chapter 27, in The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun; 3), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 200:
coordinate_terms: tab#Noun
glosses: A projecting part of an object by means of which it is secured to a handle, or to some other part.
The part of a knife, fork, file, or other instrument or hand tool, which is inserted into the handle.
The part of a sword blade to which the handle is fastened.
examples: text: The rifle carried a vernier sight on the tang[…]
ref: 1985, Cormac McCarthy, chapter IV, in Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
coordinate_terms: tab#Noun
glosses: A projecting part of an object by means of which it is secured to a handle, or to some other part.
The projecting part of the breech of a musket barrel, by which the barrel is secured to the stock.
topics: games
coordinate_terms: biscuit
glosses: A shuffleboard paddle.
examples: 1667, John Lacy, Sauny the Scot: Or, the Taming of the Shrew, Act V,
Sauny Hear ye, sir; could not ye mistake, and pull her tang out instead of her teeth?
glosses: Obsolete form of tongue.
glosses: Anything resembling a tongue in form or position, such as the tongue of a buckle.
Derived terms: tangy
tang button