Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A light brown to brownish orange.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of a dark- or dull-yellowish color; tan-colored; fawn-colored; buff. In actual use the word notes many shades of color, from pale ocher to swarthy brown, and distinctively qualifies the names of various animals. The lion is of about an average tawny color.
- n. Tawny color.
- n. The bullfinch, Pyrrhula vulgaris: so called from the coloration of the female. See tonnihood, and cut under bullfinch.
- n. In heraldry, same as tenné.
- To make tawny; tan.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of a dull yellowish brown color, like things tanned, or persons who are sunburnt.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of a light brown to brownish orange color; the color of tanned leather
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman tauné, from Old French tané, past participle of taner ("to tan"), from tan 'tanbark, tawny color', from Gaulish tanno 'holm oak' (compare Breton tann, Old Irish caerthann 'rowan'), from Indo-European *dhenh-; akin to German Tann 'woods', Tanne 'fir', Hittite tanau 'fir', Avestan thanwarə (g. thanwanō) 'bow', Sanskrit dhánus (g. dhánvanus) 'bow', Latin femur (g. feminis) 'thigh', possibly Greek thámnos 'thicket'. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Anglo-Norman taune, variant of Old French tane, from past participle of taner, to tan; see tan1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He was called tawny because from his frequent walks in the blaze of the sun his face had become much sun-burnt.”
“Two are "tawny" and two are grey and white, like their ma.”
“Some Negro slaves were brought to Europe by the Spaniards in the fourteenth century, and a small trade was continued by the Portuguese, who conquered territory from the "tawny" Moors of North Africa in the early fifteenth century.”
“From the shoulder swung a short green furred cloak, somewhat like that of a Hussar, the lining of which gleamed every now and then with a kind of tawny crimson.”
“These "tawny" colored inks I estimate were products obtained from the "thorn" trees spoken of by the monk Theophilus.”
“Branwell was rather a handsome boy, with "tawny" hair, to use Miss”
“I had hoped to see a few forest butterflies such as tawny, hackberry emperors, red admirals, or even goatweed leafwings, along the Loop Trail, but no such luck.”
“One-eighth and one-sixteenth Hawaiian were they, which meant that seven-eighths or fifteen-sixteenths white blood informed that skin yet failed to obliterate the modicum of golden tawny brown of Polynesia.”
“Each year, dozens of reports come in from people who believe they have seen large, tawny colored cats in states where no such animals are officially documented.”
The Huffington Post: David Mizejewski: Wild Cougar Confirmed in Connecticut
“I remember being surprised by her tawny golden eyes; at the way she held my gaze – like a challenge – but that was not the moment.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tawny’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Uncommon Colours
azure, myrtle, periwinkle, viridian, jade, emerald, lime, chartreuse, asparagus, celadon, harlequin, olive and 147 more...
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color (red)
tiara's color lists rebuilt :)
( visual, colors, red, descriptive, randomness )red, Red, Pink, Cloud, Salmon, Rose, Coral(Pink/Red/Dark), Cramoisy/Modena/C..., Raspberry, Rubious/Ruby, Tomato, Sanguineous/Blood and 483 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
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Oranges
amber, apricot, carrot, brown, burnt, gamboge, peach, pumpkin, safety, tangerine, tawny, tenne and 2 more...
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Brown
chocolate, chestnut, coffee, beige, clay, bronze, copper, camel, chamoisee, tan, wenge, umber and 16 more...
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Colors
Different words for colors; ex: florid, cerise, claret, etc.
cerise, florid, claret, chartreuse, watchet, argent, tawny, xanthous, rosaceous, ocher, pewter, coquelicot and 3 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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color me mauve
color words
albescent, ecru, eggshell, mauve, taupe, ochre, ashen, goldenrod, gamboge, cream, saffron, mustard and 109 more...
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(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (T)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
tabard, tadpole, taffeta, taffy, talisman, tallgrass, tam, tamarind, tamarack, tambourine, tango, tansy and 144 more...
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If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-...
Words that have been used as baby names, including virtue names, nature names, place names, etc.
The title is an actual name given to a Puritan boy in the 17th century.faith, hope, grace, charity, chastity, prudence, patience, temperance, river, phoenix, stone, violet and 455 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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