Tar
Tar , noun
[Abbrev. from tarpaulin.]
A sailor; a seaman. [Colloquial] — Swift
Tar , noun
[Old English terre, tarre, Anglo-Saxon teru, teoru; akin to Dutch teer, German teer, theer, Icelandic tjara, Swedish tjara, Danish tiare, and to English tree. r63. See Tree.]
A thick, black, viscous liquid obtained by the distillation of wood, coal, etc., and having a varied composition according to the temperature and material employed in obtaining it.
Collocations (5)
Coal tar , See in the Vocabulary.
Mineral tar (Mineralogy) , a kind of soft native bitumen.
Tar board , a strong quality of millboard made from junk and old tarred rope. — Knight
Tar water , (a) A cold infusion of tar in water, used as a medicine. (b) The ammoniacal water of gas works.
Wood tar , tar obtained from wood. It is usually obtained by the distillation of the wood of the pine, spruce, or fir, and is used in varnishes, cements, and to render ropes, oakum, etc., impervious to water.
Tar , transitive verb
To smear with tar, or as with tar; as, to tar ropes; to tar cloth.
Collocations (1)
To tar and feather a person , See under Feather, transitive verb