| 释义 |
▪ I. tank, n.1|tæŋk|
Forms: 7 tanke, tanque, tancke, tanck, 7– tank.
[In sense 1, perh. immediately from an Indian vernacular: cf. Guz. tānkh an underground reservoir for water (Shakespear), ṭānki a reservoir of water, a small well (Wilson); Marāthi ṭānken, tāken, a reservoir of water, a tank (Wilson); tānkā a cistern of stone inside a house, etc., a reservoir for rain-water: words which some would connect with Skr. taḍāga pond, lake, pool; others think that they are all derived from Pg. tanque pond = Sp. estanque, F. étang:—L. stagnum pond, pool, with which at least the Indian words were identified by the Portuguese, who even in the Roteiro de Vasco da Gama and through the 16th c. applied tanque to the Indian reservoirs, called also in Fr. estang (Pyrard de Laval c 1610). The 17th c. Eng. forms tanque and tanke appear to be taken from the Pg.; tanck, tank, on the other hand, with It. tancho (Varthema 1510), may have been from Guz. tānkh. As to the Eng. use in senses 1 b and 2, it is not clear whether this came from Anglo-Indian usage, or was immediately related to Pg. tanque. It could scarcely arise out of earlier Eng. or Sc. stank ‘pond, fish-pond, stagnant pool, ditch’, since this never in sense approached that of tank.]
1. a. In India, A pool or lake, or an artificial reservoir or cistern, used for purposes of irrigation, and as a storage-place for drinking-water.
c1616Terry Voy. E. Ind. (1655) 105 Besides their Rivers,..they have many Ponds, which they call Tanques,..fill'd with water when that abundance of Rain fals. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 51 Tancks or couered ponds of water, fild by the beneficiall raines, for the vse and drink of Trauellers. 1638W. Bruton in Hakluyt Voy. (1807) V. 50 (Y.) A very faire Tanke,..a square pit paved with gray marble. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 159 Oblong stone Tank... In this all of both Sexes Wash (this Solemnity being called the Jatry, or Washing). 1799Sir T. Munro in G. R. Gleig Life (1830) I. iv. 241 One crop under a tank, in Mysore or the Carnatic, yields more than three here. c1813Mrs. Sherwood Stories Ch. Catech. xxiv. (1873) 258 Near to the mosque were many trees, and a stone tank, full of clear water. 1877G. Chesney in 19th Cent. Nov. 610 The greater part of the irrigation in southern India is effected by means of tanks... These tanks in fact resemble the reservoirs for water-works now to be found in most parts of England... Artificial lakes..they more properly deserve to be called. 1886Daily Tel. 16 Jan. (Cassell), The tank covers seventy-two acres, and is one of the largest in India.
(b) In Australia, an artificial reservoir designed to hold water for livestock; U.S. dial., an artificial pond or lake.
1898D. Carnegie Spinifex & Sand 81, I append a table showing cost and contents of Government tanks excavated at the base of granite rocks between Southern Cross and Coolgardie. 1903‘T. Collins’ Such is Life 265 On a well-managed station..a tank is, whenever possible, excavated on the margin of a swamp. 1911C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling i. 7 There is only one boundary rider's hut in it and one ‘tank’ of water. The tank may have dried up. 1915Dialect Notes IV. 229 Tank, an artificial lake. ‘Most west Texas towns get their water from tanks.’ 1936F. Clune Roaming round Darling xiv. 121, I strongly object to the back country habit of calling holes scooped out of the ground tanks. 1955W. Foster-Harris Look of Old West ix. 273 Tank is cow country [language] for a small pond, made by damming a ravine or fixing a hollow to catch and hold rain water. 1965Austral. Encycl. I. 133/2 In Australia, every farmer is interested in constructing and maintaining tanks and dams.
b. A natural pool or pond; a ‘stank’. dial. and U.S. (Quot. 1678 perh. belongs to 1.)
1678Phillips (ed. 4), Tank, (old word) a little Pool or Pond. 1825Brockett N.C. Words, Tank, a piece of deep water, natural as well as artificial. 1867M. E. Herbert Cradle L. vii. 169 They took a walk..to the ‘Pool of David’, a square tank at the bottom of the valley full of rain water. 1890Amer. Antiquarian July 201 Here and there great hollows filled with rain-water. These places are called ‘tanks’ by the ranchmen. 1896Dialect Notes (Amer.) I. 426 (E.D.D.) Drive your horse into the tank.
2. a. An artificial receptacle, usually rectangular or cylindrical and often of plate-iron, used for storing water, oil, or other liquids in large quantities. Also spec. a water receptacle (with transparent sides) in which to keep fish; an aquarium.
1690Dryden Don Sebast. ii. ii, Here's plentiful provision for you, Rascal, sallating in the Garden, and water in the tanck. 1706Phillips, Tank,..a Cistern to keep Water in. 1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. xxiv. 234 The ice in the tanks was this day reduced. 1837Goring & Pritchard Microgr. 197 The stop-cocks..being opened, the water from the tank will flow freely into the vessels O and H. 1854P. H. Gosse Aquarium i. 3 The tanks in the new Fish House just erected in the [Zoological] Society's Gardens in the Regent's Park. 1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 12 Tanks to hold rain⁓water require constant inspection. 1871Young Gentleman's Ann. Dec. 28 Other engines..carry their water in a tank (called a saddle-tank) which rests on the top of the boiler. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Tank, a subterranean reservoir into which a pump delivers water for another pump to raise. 1890G. C. Bateman Fresh-Water Aquaria i. 6 The ordinary oblong tank..containing four glass sides, is both ornamental and useful. 1891New York Tribune 17 Oct. 12/3 (Funk) The gas tank was fifty feet in diameter. 1936M. G. Elwin First Steps in Aquarium Keeping iv. 27 The tank will look unfinished without a couple of the beautiful Angel fish. 1971R. F. O'Connell Freshwater Aquarium 127 The breeding tank should be cleaned thoroughly and filled with seasoned water to a depth of 8 inches. 1982I. Petrovický Trop. Aquarium Fishes 13 If an aquarium is to be purely ornamental, it is better to select one larger tank.
b. The fuel container of a motor vehicle.
1902A. C. Harmsworth Motors & Motor-Driving vii. 117 With the gravity-fed carburetter the tank is fitted in the body of the car. 1944L. D. Kitchin Road Transport Law 19/1 Not more than 60 gallons of petroleum spirit, including that contained in any vehicle fuel tank, may be kept in any one storage place. 1978K. Amis Jake's Thing xxiv. 244 ‘Are we low on petrol, Ivor?’ ‘No, I had a full tank when I picked you up.’
3. Short for tank-engine, -steamer, etc.
1891Daily News 23 Sept. 3/3 They were picked up in a very exhausted condition by a German oil tank from New York to Rotterdam. 1903Westm. Gaz. 31 Dec. 3/2 Trains hauled..by a mammoth tank.
4. U.S. slang. A cell in a police station, spec. one in which several prisoners (esp. drunks) are held.
1912D. Lowrie My Life in Prison iii. 30, I glanced at the number on the cell door. It was..34 Tank. 1933‘J. Spenser’ Limey xvii. 256 In our tank..there were three Chicago gangsters waiting to be returned to that city. 1947A. R. Bosworth San Francisco Murders 264 The day a police reporter had to pick him out of the collection in the drunk tank. 1951Life 8 Jan. 24 (caption) Still relatively blissful but due for an unhappy awakening, some of the 1,200 Angelenos charged with drunkenness sleep it off in the tank. 1964Wodehouse Frozen Assets iii. 50 It gets boring after a while being thrown into the tank, always with that nervous feeling that this time the old man won't come through with the necessary bail. 1981L. Deighton XPD xxv. 210 And then tossed into the drunk tank like a common criminal.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tank-head, tank-maker, tank-room, tank-sinker, tank-storage, tank-work; tank-like adj.; spec. in sense 1, as tank-cultivation, tank-silt, tank-system, tank-water; tank-watered adj.; in sense 2, constructed as or fitted with a tank for conveying liquids, etc., esp. mineral oils in bulk, as tank-barge, tank-boat, tank-car, tank house, tank-ship, tank-steamer, tank-train, tank-truck, tank-van, tank-vessel, tank-wagon; tank bag, a receptacle for carrying luggage which fits on to the petrol tank of a motorcycle; tank circuit Electronics, a resonant circuit placed in the anode circuit of a valve oscillator in order to supply energy to an aerial for transmission; tank-engine, a railway engine which carries the fuel and water receptacles on its own framing and not in a separate tender; tank farm orig. U.S., a collection of tanks for the large-scale storage of oil; tank furnace (see quot. 1970); tank-iron, plate-iron of a thickness suitable for making tanks; tank-locomotive (U.S.) = tank-engine; tank-man, tank-pipe: see quots.; tank-plate = tank-iron; tank-runner, the pheasant-tailed Jacana, or Water-pheasant, Hydrophasianus chirurgus, of India and Sri Lanka, so called from its ability to run over floating lotus-leaves, etc.; tankstand Austral. and N.Z., a stand or support for a tank in which water is stored; tank-station, a station or place where a tank or tanks are provided, e.g. on a railway for supplying water to the engines or for storing oil, in a mine for storing water; tank suit U.S., a (ladies') one-piece bathing-suit with scooped neck (cf. maillot 2); tank top, (a) the top of a tank; (b) a sleeveless upper garment with round neck and deep armholes, freq. of knitted material and similar to the top of a one-piece bathing-suit, worn by men or women; cf. tank suit above; tank town U.S., a small, unimportant town, orig. one at which trains stopped to take on water; tank-valve: see quot.; tank-waste, the insoluble sediment from the dissolving tanks in alkali works; tank-worm, a nematoid worm inhabiting the mud of Indian tanks, and believed to be the young of the guinea worm.
1974Cycle World June 24 (Advt.), Rain-proof cycle luggage... *Tank bag—straps to gas tank. 1980Guardian 28 Apr. 8/6 A set of good bike luggage—panniers and top box—is the best solution... A cheaper alternative is a pair of carriers to sling over the seat and a good tank bag.
1894Labour Commission Gloss., *Tank-barges,..used specially for conveying tar and oil in bulk in large tanks fitted or built in the barges.
1889Daily News 2 Jan. 2/4 The..recent explosion of a *tank-boat near Calais.
1874Knight Dict. Mech. 457/2 *Tank-car. 1877Ibid., Tank-car, a large tank mounted on a platform-truck for carrying petroleum or other liquid. 1904Daily Chron. 23 Mar. 7/3 The railway provides tank cars and tank stations along its route for Russian oil only.
1928L. S. Palmer Wireless Princ. & Pract. vi. 183 A slightly different method is that of using a ‘*tank’ circuit, which consists of a low impedance oscillatory circuit connected from the earth end of the aerial inductance to earth. 1959K. Henney Radio Engin. Handbk. (ed. 5) xviii. 14 Resonant tank circuits are used in..power amplifiers to remove the effects of tube and circuit stray capacitances. 1971Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. vii. 22 Tank circuit, tuned circuit in the anode circuit of the final stage of a transmitter which supplies the radio-frequency energy to the aerial or aerial feeder.
1875Madras Revenue Board Rep., The *tank cultivation suffered most.
1850Pract. Mech. Jrnl. III. 33 The centre of the boiler..is 3½ inches lower in the *tank engine. 1864Webster, Tank engine. 1902Westm. Gaz. 4 July 12/1 A tank-engine of absolutely novel type and colossal dimensions.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 271 *Tank-farm, a group of storage tanks. 1941Sun (Baltimore) 7 Nov. 17/1 Chemical flames prevented anyone from getting into the explosion area, which Sears described as a ‘tank farm’, the storage area of the vinylite or plastics producing section. 1974Daily Tel. 30 May 8/6 Huge ‘tank farms’ may be needed in parts of Scotland to store the oil.
1879Encycl. Brit. X. 659/1 Mr Archibald Stevenson of Glasgow has patented a *tank furnace fired by common coal from one end, with working holes on the other three sides. 1908W. Rosenhain Glass Manufacture iv. 72 The tank furnace utilises the heat of the flame more efficiently. 1970Gloss. Industrial Furnace Terms (B.S.I.) 20 Tank furnace, a furnace in which glass is melted in a refractory bath.
1895Funk's Standard Dict., *Tank-head, the head or end of a metal tank.
1941Sun (Baltimore) 15 Oct. 19/2 It is an unwatched light showing quick red flashes,..28 feet above water, on a white skeleton tower and *tankhouse on concrete piers. 1978Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVI. 693/1 An important application is that of titanium blanks for the production of the starting sheets used in copper refinery tankhouses.
1864Webster, *Tank-iron.
1897Daily News 18 June 8/4 Round in shape, but flat and *tank-like on the top. 1905Westm. Gaz. 21 May 1/3 It consisted of three terraces and a tank-like pond on the basement floor.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Tank-locomotive,..one having a tank or tanks enabling it to carry a supply of water sufficient for its own consumption without a tender.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Tank-maker, a manufacturer of iron cisterns for ships, or of slate, or well-secured plank cisterns on shore. 1909Westm. Gaz. 21 May 4/1 The tank-makers in Germany cannot buy their raw material from abroad.
1891Labour Commission Gloss., *Tank-men, men employed in large steamers to look after the water tanks.
1894Ibid. s.v. Pipes, *Tank pipes, pipes used for filling or emptying the water ballast or fresh water tanks.
1892Daily News 4 July 9/7 *Tank-plates are quoted {pstlg}6 10s, and rods {pstlg}7.
1901Scotsman 2 Mar. 9/1 The circulation of sea-water in the *tank-room [of the zoological station].
1945Sun (Baltimore) 23 Aug. 9-o/1 More than 100 *tankships, many of which had been torpedoed..have been cleaned and made free of gas. 1978M. Dewis Law Health & Safety at Work i. 5 The crew of a British tankship.
1905A. Andrew Ind. Problems ii. 51 In most places *tank silt can be got. This is a valuable manure.
1900H. Lawson On Track 37 Bush-fencers, *tank-sinkers, rough carpenters, &c.—were finishing the third and last culvert of their contract.
1941Coast to Coast 146 Then she crept off the veranda and went down under the *tankstand. The soil under the tank was a rich chocolate brown, and there were drips of water coming from the tap. 1965S. T. Ollivier Petticoat Farm v. 66 Emma carefully retraced her steps down the windmill until she reached the..corner of the tank-stand. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds vi. 116 A drover whose cross said only Tankstand Charlie he was a good bloke.
1889Daily News 2 Jan. 2/4 The *tank steamer Oka..represents the advance so far made towards perfection in the building of ships designed for the carriage of [petroleum].
1959P. Roth Goodbye Columbus ii. 20 She wore a black *tank suit and went barefooted. 1979Dancemagazine Feb. 108/3 In Moth Dance, the lines of Hermans' tensed, slender body, in tanksuit and reflecting sunglasses, become clearer as the semidarkness grows lighter.
1902S. Smith Life-Work xxii. 214 In Southern India the *tank system prevails.
1900Engineering Mag. XIX. 678 The margin plates of the *tank top are put on, and the tank-top plating itself. 1968New Yorker 27 Jan. 25 Miss Farrell—a tall, pretty ballerina dressed in a purple tank top and baggy rubber warm-up pants. 1971Observer 1 Aug. 22/3 A favourite Paris idea is to put little woolly vests or tank tops over shirts and under suit jackets. 1977Miller & Swift Words & Women 157 Even the latter have given up whalebone corsets and starched winged collars without assuming they have to switch to miniskirts or tank tops.
1906J. F. Kelly Man with Grip 11 *Tank towns are big ones, compared to our route. 1940R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely v. 38 You would find them in tanktown vaudeville acts. 1978Times 25 Mar. 14/4 When vaudeville was in its final death throes, young Donald O'Connor was..going—as the show biz legend decreed he should—from ‘one tank town to another’.
1901Munsey's Mag. XXV. 749/1 Racks for the loading of *tank trains.
1904Blackw. Mag. May 609/1 A crowd of Wadaruma women..rushed out to fill their gourds from the *tank-truck behind the engine. 1976New Yorker 9 Feb. 66/8 It was solved by designing a tank truck that intermittently travelled around the array and sprayed the mirrors with a cleaning solution.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Tank-valve, (Railway Engineering) a form of valve used in locomotive water-supply tanks, for admitting water to the discharge-pipe.
1887Daily News 27 July 6/3 The commoner fish brought in *tank vans was sold by the consignees from the vans.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Tank-vessel. c1890Nature, Disasters during the discharge of cargoes from tank-vessels.
1886Pall Mall G. 10 June 14/1 [He] has invented a system of delivering oil in bulk by means of a street *tank-waggon.
1889Ibid. 3 Aug. 7/1 A new process for the manufacture of soda..recovers the sulphur of the *tank waste.
1905A. Andrew Ind. Problems ii. 53 Cultivator of *tank-watered land.
1898Engineering Mag. XVI. 133/1 A Notable Piece of Lead *Tank Work.
1883Chambers's Encycl. s.v., There is extreme probability that these *tank-worms are the origin of the guinea-worm.
Add:[3.] b. Short for tank top (b). colloq.
1985Washington Post 6 July c7/4 Seipel wore a tank textured with vertical ribs. 1988Flex Dec. 57/1, I created a complete line of sports clothes—everything from t-shirts and tanks to sweats and shorts.
▪ II. † tank, n.2 Herb. Obs.
[ME. tanke; origin obscure.]
The wild carrot; according to Gerarde, the wild parsnip.
a1400–50Stockh. Med. MS. 181 Bryddys neste or tanke: daucus asininus. Ibid. 182 Þe lesse tank: daucus creticus. 14..MS. Arundel 272, lf. 46 (Halliw.) Brydswete or tank. Hit hath leves like to hemlok, and a quite flower. 1597Gerarde Herbal App., Tanke is wild Parsnep.
▪ III. † tank, n.3 Obs.
Erroneously shortened from copped tank: see copintank.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 55/2 Like long Hatters Blocks, or capped tanks, i.e. Hats with Brims. Ibid. iii. 271/1 A Womans Head couped..on her Head a Capped Tank Embowed, and Tied under her Chin. Ibid. 395/2 Mens heads are..covered with..Caps, Cowles, Tankes, Morions, Insulas, Hats and Hoods.
▪ IV. tank, n.4 rare—0.
= tang n.1
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Tank,..the end of a file, etc. inserted in a socket.
▪ V. ‖ tank, n.5
[Cf. tanga1.]
(See quots.)
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 206 (jewel weights) 1 Miscall is 1 Tank. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Tank..a small Indian dry-measure, averaging 240 grains in weight; a Bombay weight for pearls, of 72 grains.
▪ VI. tank, n.6 dial.
In 7 tanck.
[Echoic.]
‘A blow, a knock’ (E.D.D.).
1686Plot Staffordsh. 30 The Operators in Iron..are all awakened with a little blow (or tanck) upon a pair of their tongues (which is the common means they use for that purpose). [1904in Eng. Dial. Dict. from Yorksh. to Northampton and Worcestersh.]
▪ VII. tank, n.7
[Special use of tank n.1 adopted in Dec. 1915 for purposes of secrecy during manufacture.]
1. a. An armoured military vehicle moving on a tracked carriage and mounted with a gun, designed for use in rough terrain.
First put into commission on 15 Sept. 1916.
1916Times 18 Sept. 9/6 ‘Tanks’ is what these new machines are generally called, and the name has the evident official advantage of being quite undescriptive. 1917A. Machen Terror i. 19 Last summer there were very few people outside high official circles who knew anything about the ‘Tanks’, of which we have all been talking lately. 1918Review of Reviews (N.Y.) Oct. 383 The British tanks, as first produced, were of two types, male and female. The male tank was armed with two six-pounder, rapid-fire Hotchkiss guns, and four Lewis machine guns... The female type carried a lighter armament. 1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 10 Jan. 5/2 Voltaire is said to be the real inventor of the armored war tank. In 1756 he designed what was called the ‘Assyrian Chariot’, which was armed like the tank. 1940Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 10 Aug. 1 (heading) Army irked as news leaks of plans for monster tank. 1957Encycl. Brit. XXI. 791/2 In 1940..the French alone possessed about 3,600 tanks..superior in armour and fire power to those of the Germans. 1970Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 16 Aug. 13/4 For security purposes the cumbersome metal machines needed a code-name: ‘water carriers’ was rejected in favour of ‘tanks’. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds xv. 344 Went through them big buggers of tanks like a dose of salts.
b. In pl., ellipt. for Tank Corps.
1943J. B. Priestley Daylight on Saturday iv. 21 Her husband was abroad, in the Tanks. 1967L. Deighton Only when I Larf (1968) vii. 85, I could see that the war had to come, so I..got a commission in the tanks. 1981A. Price Soldier no More vii. 97 He was in the tanks during the war.
2. attrib. and Comb., as tank battle, tank Corps, tank crew, tank driver, tank officer, tank raid, tank warfare; tank-like adj.; also used of naval vessels designed to transport and put ashore tanks, as tank-landing craft, etc. (cf. landing craft, ship s.v. landing vbl. n. 8); tank buster slang, an aircraft or other device designed to combat tanks (cf. -buster); also fig.; tank-destroyer U.S., a highly-mobile armoured fighting vehicle equipped with a field gun, designed to combat tanks; tank-man, a member of a military tank crew; tank transporter, a wheeled vehicle for the transportation of a tank; tank trap, an obstacle placed or constructed so as to impede or prevent the progress of a tank; tank turret, the rotating structure on a tank on which the gun is mounted; tank watch, a gold watch designed by Cartier of Paris, decorated with gemstones, and usu. regarded as a status symbol [designed in 1917; the gold side-panels were held to resemble the wide tracks of the new armoured tanks (see sense 1 a)].
1944C. Milburn Diary 7 June (1979) 217 A tank battle was raging in one spot and an air battle not far away. 1978A. Melville-Ross Blindfold xxii. 130 The great tank battles of the Second World War.
1941Illustr. London News 29 Nov. 691/1 The Hawker ‘Hurricane’ is..proving its superiority in the battle of the Libyan Desert..as a dive-bomber and ‘tank-buster’. 1942J. Sweeney in Murdock & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories (1951) 384 No sooner does the gong go for the third than Irish walks into..a rip-snorting tank-buster that Big Joe had been saving up for a secret weapon. 1967Electronics 6 Mar. 311/2 (Advt.), Tiny tankbuster.
1917Army Order 239 28 July, We deem it expedient to authorize the formation of, and to provide rates of pay for, a corps to be entitled ‘Tank Corps’. 1976Listener 20 May 633/3 He had joined the Tank Corps... He was lying in bed in barracks one night, listening to the flow of unremitting obscenity from his fellow tankmen.
a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 14 As soon as this was finished I began to make the acquaintance of my tank crews. 1973A. Price October Men v. 71 Tales of stranded tank crews parboiled.
1941Sun (Baltimore) 28 Aug. 24/1 The army today demonstrated..the type of unit it hopes is the answer to panzer attack, a ‘tank-destroyer’ battalion of fast-moving, self-propelled field guns protected to a certain extent by armor. 1961W. Vaughan-Thomas Anzio v. 76 The American 894th Tank-Destroyer Battalion..attacked again. The tank-destroyers advanced line ahead like battleships of old.
1928Tank driver [see caterpillar v.]. 1980J. Ditton Copley's Hunch i. ii. 42 ‘You [sc. the RAF] go into action sitting down.’ ‘So do tank drivers.’
1917W. S. Churchill in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1977) IV. Compan. i. 87 In addition a number (say) 50 tank-landing lighters would be provided, each carrying a tank or tanks. 1945Tank landing ship [see landing vbl. n. 8]. 1969Listener 4 Sept. 304/2 In January 1956 I thought I was going to a reserve fleet, but rather to my delight I was appointed to another command. This was to a tank landing-craft called HMS Redoubt in Malta. 1977Navy News June 23 Audemer, a Royal Corps of Transport tank landing craft, is in the Review lines.
1916E. Montagu Let. 31 Oct. in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1972) III. Compan. ii. 1580 Cannot the idea of the Tank be so extended as to use a Tank-like machine to protect our Infantry. 1977C. Fremlin Spider-Orchid xvii. 111 A sort of monstrous arrogance..driving tank-like over all concerns other than its own.
1934N. & Q. CLXVI. 73/2 In the tank-man we shall have the steel-clad mediaeval knight back again. 1976Tankman [see Tank Corps above].
1949R. Chandler Let. 24 Jan. (1981) 145 At one [table] sat..a demobbed tank officer with his mother. 1978A. Price '44 Vintage xi. 136 He certainly didn't intend to let any bloody tank officer..out-crawl him.
1917‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 135 Farther along the road was the scene of the first tank raids. 1943Times (Weekly ed.) 24 Nov. 6 ‘Tank Transporter.’ To save wear and tear of tracks and to save petrol, tanks are transported over hard roads by huge tank-carrying lorries. 1972D. Bloodworth Any Number can Play xvi. 149 A respray job... What ran into it, a tank-transporter?
1925Scribner's Mag. Sept. 234/1 Tank traps, trenches so wide that the little fellows went nose-down into them and stuck, and direct fire from Boche artillery stopped the most of them. 1977Time 10 Jan. 22/2 The Chileans, bracing for a possible invasion, are mining the desert, implanting tank traps and building fortifications.
1946E. Linklater Private Angelo xi. 131 Romans..tossed flowers into jeeps and tank-turrets. 1979D. Graham in K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem 10 Sufficient of its character remained, however, for it to move into action..with tank turrets open and umbrellas up.
a1944K. Douglas Ibid. (1946) 14 It is low-built, which in..tank warfare, is a first consideration. 1977B. Freemantle Charlie Muffin ii. 29 His absorption in the history of tank warfare.
1976Vogue Dec. 216 Cufflinks and watches all from Cartier... Tank watch edged with diamonds, {pstlg}1,800. 1978T. Gifford Glendower Legacy (1979) 119 She looked at her Cartier tank watch with the sapphire on the stem.
Hence ˈtanker2 colloq. = tank-man, sense 2 above.
1919W.R.A.F. on Rhine July 27 Little boys with..tanks..asking the girls to come and play... What jolly boys those Tankers were! 1940Sun (Baltimore) 23 Sept. 11/4 There are tankers who long ago served in the same regiment when it was fully horsed. 1961W. Vaughan-Thomas Anzio v. 79 Italian geography is unfriendly to the tank, and there were moments when tankers must have felt that the whole country was one enormous, endless anti-tank ditch. 1974C. Ryan Bridge Too Far iii. ix. 187 Taylor had hoped for the support of the tankers' guns along the fifteen-mile stretch of corridor the Screaming Eagles must control.
▪ VIII. tank, n.8 slang.
[Prob. abbrev. of tankard.]
The amount held by a drinking-vessel; hence loosely, a drink (usu. of beer). Cf. jar n.2 2 c, tank v.1 5 a.
1936O. Nash Primrose Path 46 What can a man..Ask..More than a pipe..And a modest tank of beer? 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 75 Tank, a pint of beer. 1958Spectator 7 Feb. 171/1 Their carousals over a few friendly tanks at the neighbouring Whitehall milk bar.
▪ IX. tank, v.1
[f. tank n.1]
1. trans. To lift or measure in a tank.
1886Sci. Amer. Suppl. 9130 If this [water] can be tanked or weighed, no material error should occur. 1890Colliery Advert., The water pumped or tanked out.
2. To store or preserve in a tank. Also, to put into a tank.
1900Lancet 22 Sept. 873/2 Sailors..who have had to drink tanked and often impure water. 1960Koestler Lotus & Robot i. i. 42 The driver-owners are so poor that they only tank one or two gallons at a time.
3. To treat in a tank or tanks.
1906U. Sinclair Jungle iii. 43 To another room came all the scraps to be ‘tanked’, which meant boiling and pumping off the grease to make soap and lard.
4. To immerse in a tank; to duck. dial.
1863Reade Hard Cash xxxviii. III. 68 They tanked her cruel, they did; and kept her under water till she was nigh gone.
5. Chiefly to tank up.
a. intr. for refl. To fill oneself with drink, to drink heavily. Also refl. Cf. tanked ppl. a. 1. slang.
1902A. H. Lewis Wolfville Nights xv. 236 Bowlaigs would reepair back ag'in to the Major [with the bottle], when they'd both tank up ecstatic. 1920C. L. Stagg High Speed viii. 142 Both of 'em are tankin' up next door, and layin' for you and the whole bunch. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby (1926) ii. 28, I think he'd tanked up a good deal at luncheon, and his determination to have my company bordered on violence. 1939A. Huxley After Many a Summer ii. iii. 208 She..made him feel good, like you felt when you'd tanked up a bit on Scotch. 1951W. C. Williams Autobiogr. xxv. 148 Perhaps he was insubordinate or tanked himself up or did something otherwise improper. 1959A. Christie Cat among Pigeons 18 On Sports Day..Lady Veronica arrived completely sober... But there were times when Lady Veronica tanked herself up. 1974D. Ramsay No Cause to Kill ii. 132 Jessie's a lush... Hardly ever leaves the house..except to tank up at the neighbourhood hangouts. 1980I. Hunter Malcolm Muggeridge xii. 216 Behan arrived for the interview ‘somewhat full’ and proceeded to tank up further in the BBC hospitality room.
b. trans. To fill the tank of (a vehicle) with fuel; to refuel. Also absol., and intr. for pass. colloq.
1933[implied in tanking vbl. n.1]. 1944‘N. Shute’ Pastoral ii. 37 The Bowser was waiting to tank up the Wellington. 1948― No Highway ix. 244, I guess we'll make Ivanhoe by sundown... Tank up there, 'n have plenty up at the lake. 1959Halas & Manvell Technique Film Animation v. 65 A cartoonist may want to give an automobile the characteristics of a dog in its attitude to the fuel that its owner offers it... It shakes its shaggy head in refusal to tank up with the wrong brand of spirit. 1963D. Irving Destruction of Dresden iii. iii. 139 The whole force [of aircraft] had been tanked up with maximum fuel loads, 2,154 gallons of petrol each. 1977N. Freeling Gadget i. 5 The four cars..stopped once to tank up. 1978― Night Lords xxx. 140 At the edge of the service area he stopped..while the car was tanked.
c. transf. and fig.
1942Tee Emm (Air Ministry) II. 145 It's no good tanking up on them [sc. vitamins] and hoping you'll be able to detect a black cat at midnight in a Bremen cellar from 10,000 feet. 1959Word Study Oct. 2/2 We are grateful for them, ‘tank up’ on their detailed and highly useful messages, and perhaps put them away for future reference. 1975R. Butler Where All Girls are Sweeter ii. 15 She was twiddling the empty glass... I tanked her up and waited.
6. intr. In Lawn Tennis, to lose or fail to finish a match deliberately; to default. slang.
1976Times 30 Sept. 11/5 Too many..singles players do not enter for the doubles. Either that, or they scratch or ‘tank’ (in boxing parlance, ‘take a dive’). 1979Guardian 13 Jan. 11 But it is ironic that Connors, a player generally considered too honest to ‘tank’ to anyone, should be the one to suffer.
Hence ˈtanker3, a heavy drinker; ˈtanking vbl. n.1 (in the senses of the vb.).
1891Cent. Dict., Tanking, the operation or method of treating in tanks, as fish for the extraction of oil, by boiling, settling, etc. 1918H. Bindloss Agatha's Fortune iv. 40 When you get the tanking habit such things happen. 1930Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. 31 Jan. 7/5 Tanking consists of salting ungutted herrings into big tanks for future use. 1932H. Crane Let. 16 Feb. (1965) 400 Especially with Luz around, who Lisa says is a great little tanker. 1933Flight 16 Feb. 157/1 Petrol-filling installations, i.e. hand pumps, are now available on all important aerodromes, and the average time spent in tanking is only 45 min. 1935J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra ii. 49 But the rest of them! God, what a gang of tankers they were.
▸ intr. colloq. (orig. U.S.). To fall rapidly in estimation, value, etc.; to fail; spec. (of an economy or share price) to crash.
1979Washington Post (Nexis) 14 Oct. g19 The market tanked again and took the municipal and corporate markets with it as well. 1984N.Y. Times (Nexis) 3 Oct. d1 Aggressive stocks have really tanked since June of 1983. 1987Inc. (Nexis) Nov. 116 The new product they were working on just tanked. 1998Canad. Business (Electronic ed.) 8 May 71 Ancillary markets..TV, soundtracks, etc...are now capable of rescuing films that are generally believed to have tanked at the box office. 2005R. W. Campoy Case Study Anal. vii. 149 By the time he reached middle school, his grades had completely tanked.
▪ X. tank, v.2
[f. tank n.7]
1. intr. To proceed or make one's way in a tank. Also fig.
1939H. G. Wells Holy Terror iii. ii. 271 The city crowds cheered, the armies went tanking forward. 1945A. Thirkell Miss Bunting ix. 192 He tanked right over her without so much as noticing her. 1972R. Poole Towards Deep Subjectivity i. 4 The Russians..shot their way in, they tanked their way in.
2. trans. To defeat convincingly, to beat, thrash, or overwhelm. Hence ˈtanking vbl. n.2 Cf. tonk v. Sc. dial.
1973‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed vi. 60 We were to play football... (‘Uzz Young Team always tank them.’). 1976Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 26 Dec. 2/1 They..had just come from a party for Rangers F.C., who tanked the local Clachnacuddin side 8–0. 1982P. Turnbull Dead Knock iii. 56 Glasgow..[is] a good city... The reputation for violence comes from the gangs who give each other tankings. |