tank
/ˈtæŋk/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms tanks tanking tanked
- noun A closed container for liquids or gases. “The propane is stored in these tanks.”
- noun An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids. “The contractors installed a new tank with gorgeous fish and corals.”
- noun A pond, pool, or small lake (either natural or artificial).
- noun The fuel reservoir of a vehicle. “We have brought the van to a garage after we found a leak in the tank.”
- noun The amount held by a container; a tankful. “I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York.”
- noun 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.”
- noun (India, New South Wales (Australia)) A reservoir or dam (as it is known in the rest of Australia).
- noun (botany) A structure of tightly overlapping leaves used by some bromeliads to retain water.
- verb To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet.
- verb (Internet slang) to flop; drop in popularity (of a musician/group)
- verb (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.
- verb (transitive) To put (fuel, etc.) into a tank. “Concrete below ground must be fully tanked to prevent water uptake.”
- verb To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.
- verb (fandom slang) To resist damage; to be attacked without being hurt.
- verb (originally poker, slang) To contemplate a decision for a long time; to go in the tank.
- verb (Singapore, colloquial) To stand; to tolerate.
- noun A small Indian dry measure, averaging 240 grains in weight.
- noun A Bombay weight of 72 grains, for pearls.
- proper noun A city in Tank district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
- proper noun A district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Synonyms
battle tank combat tank armour tango army tank armored combat vehicle armoured combat vehicle storage tank tankful tank car cooler
Antonyms
Etymology
From Portuguese tanque (“tank, liquid container”), from an Indo-Aryan language, likely Gujarati ટાંકી (ṭā̃kī, “cistern”) or Marathi टांकी (ṭāṅkī).
A false friend can be found in North Germanic: dunk (“canister, keg”), 17th c. tönk, which appears derived from both Low German tunneke, Dutch tonneke (diminutive of "barrel"), and dunka (“to dunk, to dip under water, to moisten”).
* In the sense of armoured vehicle, prototypes were described as tanks for carrying water to disguise their nature and due to physical resemblance. First attested in 1915, but in common usage only as of 1916. Displaced landship, and mostly displaced battlewagon.
Borrowed from Urdu ٹانک.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A small Indian dry measure, averaging 240 grains in weight; also, a Bombay weight of 72 grains, for pearls. Simmonds.
- noun A large basin or cistern; an artificial receptacle for liquids.
Etymology [Pg. tanque, L. stangum a pool; or perhaps of East Indian origin. Cf. Stank, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tank”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details