tan

plural tans

1. A light, brown-like colour.
2. A darkening of the skin resulting from exposure to sunlight or similar light sources.

   She still has a tan from her vacation in Mexico.

   1 more example

   I'm hoping to get a tan this weekend at the beach.

3. The bark of an oak or other tree from which tannic acid is obtained.

   Near-synonym: oakbark (contextually synonymous)

   1 more example

   In two pints of water boil one ounce of tan, and a like portion of nutgall till reduced to a pint.

   1848, John Hannett, Bibliopegia, or, The Art of Bookbinding in all its branches, page 65

   Synonyms: oakbark

4. AlbertaSynonym of wall ball.

   Synonyms: wall ball

comparative tanner · superlative tannest

1. Yellowish-brown.

   a tan suit

   2 more examples

   Mine is the white car parked next to the tan pickup truck.

   The history of suits in politics is long and storied: from Obama’s “shocking” tan suit, now infamous enough to have its own Wikipedia page, […].

   2026 January 2, Jad Salfiti, “What Zohran Mamdani’s suit tells us about the man and the way society is changing”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

2. Having dark skin as a result of exposure to the sun or an artificial process intended to mimic this effect.

   You’re looking very tan this week.

   Synonyms: suntanned, tanned

present singular third person tans · participle present tanning · participle past tanned · past tanned

1. intransitivetransitiveTo 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.

2. transitiveTo change an animal hide into leather by soaking it in tannic acid.
3. stativetransitiveTo work as a tanner.
4. informaltransitiveTo spank or beat.

   "Well, go 'long and play; but mind you get back some time in a week, or I'll tan you."

   1876, Mark Twain, chapter 3, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

1. dialectalrareThe second cardinal number two, formerly used in Celtic areas, especially Cumbria and parts of Yorkshire, for counting sheep, and stitches in knitting.

1. An Armenian drink made of yoghurt and water similar to airan and doogh

plural tans

1. uncountableusuallySynonym of picul, particularly in Cantonese contexts.

   Synonyms: picul, particularly in Cantonese contexts

plural tans

1. dialectalA twig or small switch.

present singular third person tans · participle present tanning · participle past tanned · past tanned

1. Multicultural London EnglishslangtransitiveTo kill by gun, to shoot.

   Step on the wing, see an opp and I'll whack it Do it like Super Savage Who's the yute I Jet-Li-rise that dots and tan him (whoosh) Rise that dots and tan him

   2019 September 29, Moscow17, “All For The Cause”

1. A Chinese surname from Mandarin.

1. A Chinese surname from Hokkien.

1. alternativeAlternative form of Dan.

   The Tae ping camps commanded the Tan river which, flowing eastward, becomes further on the Wei, under which name it joins the Grand Canal at Lin tsing, on the northern side of the highest level of the Canal waters.

   1856, Thomas Taylor Meadows, “Military History of the Tae pings, After the Occupation of Nanking, Up to the Present Time”, in The Chinese and their Rebellions, London: Smith, Elder & Co., →OCLC, page 175

   3 more examples

   As regards other possible railways in Shensi and Kansu not yet definitely projected, the most attractive is a line from the neighbourhood of Chingtzu Kuan in south-western Honan up the Tan River valley and across the Ch'inling Shan to Hsian.

   1921, Eric Teichman, Travels of a Consular Officer in North-West China, Cambridge University Press, →OCLC, →OL, page 214

   I was much disappointed at learning that the water was too low for navigation on the Tan river as yet, and that we would have to travel four days over the mountains to Kingtzekuan, on the border of Honan, before we should find the river navigable.

   1923, Frits Holm, My Nestorian Adventure in China, Fleming H. Revell Company, →OCLC, page 191

   In mid-March 1914 the White Wolf band gathered with a number of other rural bands at Ching-tzu-kuan, a cluster of houses at a pass on the Tan river at the Honan-Shensi provincial borders.[...] They continued through the Tsinling mountains above the Tan river valley on a high trad under yet higher caves where villagers traditionally hide.

   1974, Edward Friedman, Backward Toward Revolution: the Chinese Revolutionary Party, University of California Press, published 1977, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 152–153

1. A surname from Vietnamese.

1. abbreviationinitialismengineeringInitialism of total acid number, the measure of a lubricant's or crude oil's acidity. See Total acid number on Wikipedia.
2. abbreviationinitialismbankingInitialism of transaction authentication number, in electronic banking. See Transaction authentication number on Wikipedia.