tanker

plural tankers

1. nauticalA tankship, a vessel used to transport large quantities of fluid.

   The channel at Chan-chiang is being dredged to a depth of 50 feet enabling tankers of 70,000 tons to call.

   1976 March, JeNelle Matheson, Construction Equipment A Market Assessment for the People's Republic of China, U.S. Department of Commerce, →OCLC, page 8

2. UKUSautomotiveA motor truck (lorry) with a tank to hold bulk liquid (with or without internal baffles): a fuel tanker (lorry), petrol tanker, road tanker.

   Nor is the government facing a strike by tanker drivers, as was the case in early 1979 during the winter of discontent.

   2021 September 23, Larry Elliott, “Petrol disruption will fuel fears of new winter of discontent”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: tanker truck, tank truck

3. usuallyaeronauticsAn aircraft carrying a large supply of jet fuel or avgas for aerial refueling of other aircraft, plus equipment allowing the in-air transfer of fuel.

   Without the KC-46 tankers orbiting in friendly airspace, our fighters would've run out of fuel long before reaching the combat zone.

   1 more example

   On Friday night, eight US Air Force KC-135 Stratotankers took off from Altus, Oklahoma, according to data from FlightRadar24. Over Kansas the tankers refueled two groups of planes, identified on air traffic control audio by their callsigns MYTEE11 FLT and MYTEE21 FLT. The callsign MYTEE has previously been associated with special activity flights by B-2 bombers, and multiple flight trackers on social media said the planes being refueled were B-2 bombers out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.

   2025 June 21, Thomas Bordeaux, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, “US moves B-2 bombers as Trump weighs Iran options”, in CNN

   Synonyms: air tanker, tanker aircraft

4. aeronauticsAn aircraft built or modified to carry water and/or fire retardant for dropping on wildfires.

   While our ground teams cut firebreaks in the brush, the tankers kept the fire in the mountains at bay with frequent drops of water and retardant.

5. rail transportA tank car (tank wagon).
6. governmentMember of a tank crew, or of an armoured unit.

   On February 19, 1943, American tankers felt the full wrath of the German Army in North Africa when its tank-led spearhead punched a 2-mile-wide hole through American lines at Faid Pass in Tunisia, […]

   2014, Michael Green, American Tanks & AFVs of World War II, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 70

   Synonyms: tankist, zipperhead

7. An airman who serves on the crew of an aerial refueling tanker aircraft.
8. slanghobbiesA longboard.

   I swung the tanker around just in time to take off with the lip.

present singular third person tankers · participle present tankering · participle past tankered · past tankered

1. transitiveTo transport (oil, etc.) in a tanker.
2. aeronauticsTo carry more fuel than necessary for a flight, in order to avoid having to refuel at a destination where fuel is more expensive or in short supply.