tallow
UK /ˈtæləʊ/ · US /ˈtæloʊ/ noun, verb
Forms tallows tallowing tallowed
- noun A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.
- verb To grease or smear with tallow.
- verb (transitive) To cause to have a large quantity of tallow; to fatten. “to tallow sheep”
- verb (intransitive) Of animals: to develop quantities of tallow.
Etymology
From Middle English talow, talgh, from Old English *tealh, *tealg, (compare Old English tælg, telg (“dye”)), from Proto-West Germanic *talg, from Proto-Germanic *talgaz (compare Dutch talg, German Talg), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to flow”) (compare Middle Irish delt (“dew”), Old Armenian տեղ (teł, “heavy rain”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The suet or fat of animals of the sheep and ox kinds, separated from membranous and fibrous matter by melting.
- noun The fat of some other animals, or the fat obtained from certain plants, or from other sources, resembling the fat of animals of the sheep and ox kinds. Tallow candle, a candle made of tallow.
- verb To grease or smear with tallow.
- verb To cause to have a large quantity of tallow; to fatten; as, tallow sheep.
Etymology [OE. taluh, talugh; akin to OD. talgh, D. talk, G., Dan. and Sw. talg, Icel. tolgr, tolg, tolk; and perhaps to Goth. tulgus firm.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tallow”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details