3. A brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun; as, hands
covered with tan.
Tan bed (Hort.), a bed made of tan; a bark bed. — Tan pickle, the
liquor used in tanning leather. — Tan spud, a spud used in stripping
bark for tan from trees. — Tan stove. See Bark stove, under Bark. — Tan
vat, a vat in which hides are steeped in liquor with tan.
Tan, a. Of the color of tan; yellowish- brown.
Black and tan. See under Black, a.
Tan, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tanned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Tanning.] [F.
tanner, LL. tannare. See Tan, n.] 1. To convert (the skin of an animal)
into leather, as by usual process of steeping it in an infusion of oak
or some other bark, whereby it is impregnated with tannin, or tannic
acid (which exists in several species of bark), and is thus rendered
firm, durable, and in some degree impervious to water.
The essential result in tanning is due to the fact that the tannins
form, with gelatins and albuminoids, a series of insoluble compounds
which constitute leather. Similar results may be produced by the use of
other reagents in place of tannin, as alum, and some acids or
chlorides, which are employed in certain processes of tanning.
2. To make brown; to imbrown, as by exposure to the rays of the sun;
as, to tan the skin.
Tan (?), v. i. To get or become tanned.
Ta"na (?), n. (Zoöl.) Same as Banxring.
Tan"a*ger (?), n. [NL. tanagra, probably fr. Brazilian tangara.]
(Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of bright-colored singing birds
belonging to Tanagra, Piranga, and allied genera. The scarlet tanager
(Piranga erythromelas) and the summer redbird (Piranga rubra) are
common species of the United States.
Tan"a*grine (?), a. (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to the tanagers.
Tan"a*groid (?), a. [Tanager + - oid.] (Zoöl.) Tanagrine.
||Ta*na"te (?), n. (Zoöl.) An Asiatic wild dog (Canis procyonoides),
||native of Japan and adjacent countries. It has a short, bushy tail.
||Called also raccoon dog.
||
Tan"dem (?), adv. & a. [L. tandem at length (of time only), punningly
taken as meaning, lengthwise.] One after another; — said especially of
horses harnessed and driven one before another, instead of abreast.
Tan"dem, n. A team of horses harnessed one before the other. "He drove
tandems." Thackeray.
Tandem engine, a compound steam engine having two or more steam
cylinders in the same axis, close to one another. — Tandem bicycle or
tricycle, one for two persons in which one rider sits before the other.
Tang (tng), n. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Dan. tang seaweed, Sw. tång,
Icel. þang. Cf. Tangle.] (Bot.) A coarse blackish seaweed (Fuscus
nodosus). Dr. Prior.