Word.ws English Dictionary

tan someone's hide

tan someone's hide verb: to beat or spank someone, usually on their backside.

Verb

tan someone's hide (third-person singular simple present tans someone's hide, present participle tanning someone's hide, simple past and past participle tanned someone's hide)

  1. (figuratively, idiomatic) To beat or spank someone, usually on their backside.
    • "You lying little snipe," he roared. ". . . I've a mind to tan your hide good."1908, Stewart Edward White, chapter 12, in The Adventures of Bobby Orde

Synonyms of tan someone's hide

11 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of tan someone's hide

Forms of tan someone's hide

third-person singular presenttans someone's hide
present participletanning someone's hide
past participletanned someone's hide
pasttanned someone's hide

Origin of tan someone's hide

By metaphor from tannery: beating hides (to condition them), tanning them (with dyes and chemicals), and so on.

Questions about tan someone's hide

What does tan someone's hide mean?
Tan someone's hide means to beat or spank someone, usually on their backside.
What part of speech is tan someone's hide?
Tan someone's hide is a verb.
What is the past tense of tan someone's hide?
The past tense of tan someone's hide is tanned someone's hide.

Words near tan someone's hide in the dictionary

  1. tan liquor
  2. tan out
  3. tan ride
  4. tan rides
  5. tan shen
  6. tan someone's hide
  7. TAN syndrome
  8. tan track
  9. tan tracks
  10. tan up
  11. Tan-ag Ibaba

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tan someone's hide (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tan someone's hide.ogg.

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