Meanings
plural touches of the tar brush
- informalReal or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry in a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry; mixed racial heritage (e.g. Afro-Caribbean or, to a lesser extent, South Asian in background or appearance).
She was quite young—not more than about twenty-five—and sort of dark and slinky-looking, if you know what I mean. Quite nice-looking in a kind of way, but rather as though she might have what my mother used to call "a touch of the tar-brush."
1936, Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia, page 30Synonyms: lick of the tarbrush
Synonyms & antonyms
nounReal or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry in a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry; mixed racial heritage (e.g. Afro-Caribbean or, to a lesser extent, South Asian in background or appearance).
Origin
Believed to be of British origin.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
touch of the tar brush. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touch%20of%20the%20tar%20brush
“touch of the tar brush.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touch%20of%20the%20tar%20brush. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “touch of the tar brush,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touch%20of%20the%20tar%20brush.
Source: touch of the tar brush on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.