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Glite Dictionary
🌞 Sun-browned skin 🟫 A light brown 🟫 Light brown color 🌞 To get sun-brown 👞 To make leather 📐 A math ratio
to tan

to tan

3 6.5
To turn animal skins into leather
  • verb
  • /tæn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : curtir
  • This contained a quantity of tea strong enough to tan a mule's skin.

They use the elk's brains to tan the hide, which makes it softer and more supple.

Examples

  • They use the elk's brains to tan the hide, which makes it softer and more supple.

    Danny Jones

  • "If you let this steep much longer, we'll be able to tan hides with it.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • You want me to tan your little hide for you?

    The Bowery (1933)

  • The artisan used traditional methods to tan the cowhide, turning it into beautiful leather.

  • To preserve the animal's skin, we must tan it properly with tannins from tree bark.

  • Before crafting bags, the workshop workers need to tan the hides to make them durable and pliable.

Idioms

to tan someone's hide
  • Archaic
9.5

To punish someone very harshly, often by hitting or scolding them

Compounds

Black and Tan
1 9.9

A member of a British force who helped the police in Ireland to stop the independence movement, 1919–1921

fan tan
1 9.9

A Chinese gambling game where players bet on how many counters remain under a bowl after grouping them by four

black and tan
5.6

A drink made by pouring dark beer over pale beer so two layers stay separate

black-and-tan
4.3

A pattern of black and tan colors on an animal's fur, often on dogs

black-and-tan coonhound
  • US
7.5

A large strong American hunting dog with black fur and tan marks that hunts raccoons

black-and-tan terrier
  • UK
7.5

A small short-haired dog with black and tan fur used to hunt rats

farmer's tan
  • Informal
7.8

A dark mark on the skin showing where clothing does not cover you in the sun

How Processed

finished
  • Specialized
1 1.0
to tan
  • Specialized
3 6.5
rawhide
10 6.7

Surface Forms

tan infinitive
tanned past
tanned past participle
tanning present participle
tans third person singular

Etymology

The verb tan (to turn animal skins into leather) comes from an old word for the bark used in the process, which changed skins into brown, usable leather. So to tan is to treat a skin so it becomes leather.