tan
/tæn/ verb C2- To change to a tan colour due to exposure to the sun. · No matter how long I stay out in the sun, I never tan, though I do burn.
- To change an animal hide into leather by soaking it in tannic acid.
- To work as a tanner.
- To spank or beat.
He/she/it tans · Past tanned · Past participle tanned · -ing form tanning
Verb forms
- Base form
- tan
- He/she/it
- tans
- Past
- tanned
- Past participle
- tanned
- -ing form
- tanning
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
A RICH MAN lived near a Tanner, and not being able to bear the unpleasant smell of the tan-yard, he pressed his neighbor to go away.
"When a gentleman of virile appearance enters my room with such tan upon his face as an English sun could never give, and with his handkerchief in his sleeve instead of in his pocket, it is not difficult to place him.
When we descended I followed Holmes into the stable yard, where he opened the door of a loose-box and led out a squat, lop-eared, white-and-tan dog, something between a beagle and a foxhound.
Darcy might have liked such an address, he contented himself with coolly replying, that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned,--no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer.
Other matches
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