Past tense of tar
regular verb
The past tense of tar is tarred. The past participle is also tarred.
Forms of tar
| Base form (V1) | tar /tɑː/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | tarred |
| Past participle (V3) | tarred |
| Present participle | tarring |
| Third person singular | tars |
Tarred in a sentence
- The allegations tarred his name, even though he was found innocent.
- The C Party have tarred themselves with the same brush as the B Party.From the entry tar with the same brush
- The comfortable, tarred road suddenly became a dangerous, rough, rubble-strewn one.2015 April 24, Frank Sieren, “Sieren's China: Beijing's 'Marshall Plan' for Pakistan”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 29…. From the entry Khunjerab Pass
- Her unluckier daughter and great-granddaughter have been tarred by amour's sloppy brush; but Mrs.1999 February 14, Liesl Schillinger, “The Lost Art of the Love Affair”, in The New York Times. From the entry great-granddaughter
- By the side of it ran an open hangar upheld by a score of rough tarred posts.1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 9. From the entry hangar
Meaning of tar
- noun Coal tar.
- noun (often typeset "tar" in USA) A solid residual byproduct of tobacco smoke.
- noun A sailor (because of the traditional tarpaulin clothes).
Questions about the past tense of tar
- What is the past tense of tar?
- The past tense of tar is tarred.
- What is the past participle of tar?
- The past participle of tar is tarred.
- Is tar a regular or irregular verb?
- Tar is a regular verb: its past tense doubles the last letter and adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tar (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of tar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/tar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.