tan

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To convert (hide) into leather, as by treating with tannin.
2. v. To make brown by exposure to the sun.
3. v. Informal To thrash; beat.
4. v. To become brown or tawny from exposure to sun.
5. n. A light or moderate yellowish brown to brownish orange.
6. n. The brown color that sun rays impart to the skin.
7. n. Tanbark.
8. n. Tannin.
9. n. A solution derived from tannin.
10. adj. Light or moderate yellowish-brown to brownish-orange.
11. adj. Having a suntan.
12. adj. Used in or relating to tanning.
13. abbr. Mathematics tangent

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The term is often used to mean spent bark which has served for the manufacture of leather and is spread over streets to deaden the sound of vehicles, or over the floor of a riding-school or circus to diminish the danger of falls, or applied to clay land as a loosening material. It is also commonly used as fuel in tanneries.
2. n. A Chinese unit of weight, a picul, equal to 133⅛ pounds avoirdupois.
3. n. A Japanese measure of surface, equal to .245 of an acre.
4. To prepare, as skins of animals, by soaking in some liquid containing tannic acid, which is generally obtained from the bark of some tree, oak-bark being commonly thought to be the best. Other barks, especially that of hemlock, are also largely used. This process converts the raw hide into leather.
5. By extension, to convert into leather by other means, as by the use of mineral salts (as those of iron and chromium), and even of oil or fat, as in the case of buckskin, chamois, and the like. See leather, taw, 2.
6. To make brown; embrown by exposure to the rays of the sun.
7. To deprive of the freshness of youth; impair the freshness and beauty of.
8. To beat; flog; thrash.
9. In the manufacture of so-called artificial marble, or an imitation of marble made from a mixture of gelatin and gum, to render (cast slabs of the mixture) hard and insoluble by steeping in a suitable preparation. See tannage, 3.
10. To treat with some hardening process as a preservation from rot, as fish-nets.
11. To be or become tanned: as, the leather tans easily.
12. To become tan-colored or tawny: as, the face tans in the sun.
13. n. The bark of the oak, willow, chestnut, larch, hemlock, spruce, and other trees abounding in tannin, bruised and broken by a mill, and used for tanning hides.
14. n. A yellowish-brown color, like that of tan: as, gloves of gray or tan.
15. n. An embrowning of the skin by exposure to the sun.
16. Of the color of tan, or of a color approaching that of tan; yellowish-brown.
17. n. A twig, or small switch.
18. n. An obsolete Middle English contraction of taken, old infinitive or past participle of take.
19. n. A Middle English contraction of to an.
20. n. Same as fan-tan.
21. n. An abbreviation of tangent.

Wiktionary

1. n. mathematics A symbol of the trigonometric function tangent.
2. n. A yellowish-brown colour.
3. n. A darkening of the skin resulting from exposure to sunlight or similar light sources.
4. n. The bark of an oak or other tree from which tannic acid is obtained.
5. adj. Of a yellowish-brown.
6. adj. Having dark skin as a result of exposure to the sun.
7. v. intransitive To change to a tan colour due to exposure to the sun.
8. v. transitive, informal To spank or beat.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. See picul.
2. n. The bark of the oak, and some other trees, bruised and broken by a mill, for tanning hides; -- so called both before and after it has been used. Called also tan bark.
3. n. A yellowish-brown color, like that of tan.
4. n. A brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun.
5. adj. Of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.
6. v. 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.
7. v. To make brown; to imbrown, as by exposure to the rays of the sun.
8. v. colloq. To thrash or beat; to flog; to switch.
9. v. To get or become tanned.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. of a light yellowish-brown color
2. v. treat skins and hides with tannic acid so as to convert them into leather
3. n. a browning of the skin resulting from exposure to the rays of the sun
4. v. get a tan, from wind or sun
5. n. ratio of the opposite to the adjacent side of a right-angled triangle
6. n. a light brown the color of topaz