tarpaulin

plural tarpaulins

1. countableA heavy, waterproof sheet of material, often cloth or plastic sheet, used as a cover or blanket (often as weatherproofing, or to keep loose cargo from blowing off a lorry).

   Throw a tarpaulin over that woodpile before it gets wet.

   1 more example

   There were sailors asleep in the fantastic fashion of the British tarpaulin — snoring heavily as they lay on the bare deck, despite the din about them.

   1946, C. S. Forester, chapter 4, in Lord Hornblower, Boston: Little, Brown, and Co.

2. archaicuncountablenauticalCanvas waterproofed with tar, used as a cover.
3. archaiccountableuncountableA hat made of, or covered with, painted or tarred cloth, worn by sailors and others.

   Near-synonym: rain hat

   Synonyms: rain hat

4. archaiccountableslangA sailor.

   —Chews coca all day long, the communicative tarpaulin added.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 581

   Synonyms: tar

present singular third person tarpaulins · participle present tarpaulining · participle past tarpaulined · past tarpaulined

1. To cover with a tarpaulin.

   "Cover it up! Don't touch it!" said the Professor. So we tarpaulined it according to his instructions, and there it lies.

   1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed