Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Hard fat obtained from parts of the bodies of cattle, sheep, or horses, and used in foodstuffs or to make candles, leather dressing, soap, and lubricants.
- n. Any of various similar fats, such as those obtained from plants.
- v. To smear or cover with tallow.
- v. To fatten (animals) in order to obtain tallow.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The harder and less fusible fats melted and separated from the fibrous or membranous matter which is naturally mixed with them. These fats are mostly of animal origin, the most common being derived from sheep and oxen. When pure, animal tallow is white and nearly tasteless; but the tallow of commerce usually has a yellow tinge. All the different kinds of tallow consist chiefly of stearin, palmitin, and olein. In commerce tallow is divided into various kinds according to its qualities, of which the best are used for the manufacture of candles, and the inferior for making soap, dressing leather, greasing machinery, and several other purposes. It is exported in large quantities from Russia.
- Pertaining to, consisting of, or resembling tallow: as, a tallow cake; a tallow dip.
- To grease or smear with tallow.
- To fatten; cause to have a large quantity of tallow: as, to tallow sheep.
Wiktionary
- n. a hard animal fat obtained from suet etc.; used to make candles, soap and lubricants
- v. To grease or smear with tallow.
- v. To cause to have a large quantity of tallow; to fatten.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The suet or fat of animals of the sheep and ox kinds, separated from membranous and fibrous matter by melting.
- n. The fat of some other animals, or the fat obtained from certain plants, or from other sources, resembling the fat of animals of the sheep and ox kinds.
- v. To grease or smear with tallow.
- v. To cause to have a large quantity of tallow; to fatten.
WordNet 3.0
- n. obtained from suet and used in making soap, candles and lubricants
Etymologies
- Middle English talgh, talow, from Old English taluh, talugh, from Proto-Germanic *talgō, *talgan (compare Dutch talk, German Talg), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“flow”) (compare Middle Irish delt ("dew"), Old Armenian տեղ (teł, "heavy rain")). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English talow. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“All the fat of the inwards, that which we call the tallow and suet, with the caul that encloses it and the kidneys in the midst of it, were to be taken away, and burnt upon the altar, as an offering made by fire, v. 3-5.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume I (Genesis to Deuteronomy)
“His first foot-gear was moccasins, his first taffy the tallow from a moose.”
“Rendered beef fat is called tallow, and pork fat lard.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“The horseshoes are first pulled off, which are worth about 4s., the hoofs fetch 8s., the tail 2s.; the tallow is not worth much, the hide is worth something; the shinbones are sold to be converted into cane-heads, knife-handles, &c.”
“Candles are kept burning by means of a wick of cotton or rush, placed in the centre of the tallow, which is moulded into a cylindrical form.”
“We bought several bags of salmon oil from the natives, which we used, so long as it lasted, as a substitute for reindeer tallow, which is all gone now.”
“Three Kings, Mother Soren lit up for Holberg a three-king candle, that is, a tallow candle with three wicks, which she had herself prepared.”
“In most places our graziers are now grown to be so cunning that if they do but see an ox or bullock, and come to the feeling of him, they will give a guess at his weight, and how many score or stone of flesh and tallow he beareth, how the butcher may live by the sale, and what he may have for the skin and tallow, which is a point of skill not commonly practised heretofore.”
Of Cattle Kept for Profit. Chapter XII. [1577, Book III., Chapter 8; 1587, Book III., Chapter 1
“Two measures that track commodities such as tallow and hides have leapfrogged to new highs recently, as goods more commonly associated with the market ' s pioneer days could be flashing out warnings about its future.”
“I had where we roade, two and twentie fadoome, and the tallow which is taken vp is full of great broken shels, and some stones withal like vnto small sand congealed together.”
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tallow’.
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Cattle
cattle, cow, beef, steer, heifer, calf, bull, cattle call, Black Angus, Hereford, Holstein, Dwarf Lulu and 402 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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The Chandlery
Candles, candle-making; photometry, and a couple of oily fish used as light sources.
candle, chandlery, chandry, candle-carriage, candela, candle-power, egg-candling, wax, tallow, paraffin, taper, cerge and 135 more...
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A Song of Ice and Fire
Vocabulary from the epic fantasy series by George R. R. Martin!
destrier, wroth, garron, portcullis, craven, lickspittle, palfrey, ermine, surcoat, brigandine, doublet, deign and 7 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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Words I See Primarily in Books About ...
furze, peat, turnips, Michaelmas, Candlemas, hunter's moon, harvest moon, banish, rampart, lest, ordure, market day and 74 more...
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Words I'd Like to Use Someday
thundersnow, phantasmagoria, mercurial, chimerical, taciturn, paraclete, lapis lazuli, flay, guttersnipe, wonky, misanthrope, kestrel and 583 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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caspermilktoast's Words
frenetic, farrago, fandango, ensemble, assay, emulsion, taut, winnow, ridonkulous, ginormous, frisson, idee fixe and 181 more...
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theastic's Words
cellar, stalemate, wrought, opal, tyrant, squelch, squab, linen, tartan, paisley, scope, siren and 395 more...
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Professional Scrabble Lexicon (TWL)
A myriad of game-changing words every Scrabble addict must have in his arsenal.
Keep in mind that these are all tried-and-true feasibly playable words selected for their handiness, i.e...paragon, pignora, ganef, suttee, origan, ohia, aioli, abasement, lehr, mho, tallow, harelike and 842 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, T
torquate, thalassocracy, toothsome, travois, tempestuous, tone, tincture, tripwire, tether, trill, tenacious, travesty and 355 more...
Tweets
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yarb Erm, citation on algal. Jun 30, 2008
yarb Citation on tallow. Jun 30, 2008