tang

Noun (1)

tang (plural tangs)

1. A refreshingly sharp aroma or flavor.
   • a tang of citrus
   • The miraculous air, heady with ozone and made memorably sweet by leagues of wild flowerets, gave tang and savour to the breath.1904, O. Henry, The Missing Chord

   Synonyms:

   bite, piquancy, spiciness, twang, zing

   Antonyms:

   blandness, dullness

2. A strong or offensive taste; especially, a taste of something extraneous to the thing itself.
   • a tang of cellar
   • Wine or cider has a tang of the cask.

   Synonyms:

   twang

3. (figuratively) A sharp, specific flavor or tinge.
   • a tang of pedantry
   • Such proceedings had a strong tang of tyranny.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
4. A projecting part of an object by means of which it is secured to a handle, or to some other part.
   • (archaic)
   • slip the cable over the tang

   Synonyms:

   fang

   1. The part of a knife, fork, file, or other instrument or hand tool, which is inserted into the handle.
      • full-tang
      • A full-tang knife is strongest against handle breakage, but partial-tang knives are common because of a combination of facts: they are inexpensive, and in some applications any manner of use that would exceed the handle's limit is not an appropriate manner of use.
   2. The part of a sword blade to which the handle is fastened.
      • I spent the evening collecting the abandoned nests of birds from a rock face a half league distant, and that night I struck fire from the tang of Terminus Est and boiled the coarse meal (which took a long time to cook, because of the altitude) and ate it.1982, Gene Wolfe, chapter 27, in The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun; 3), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 200
   3. The projecting part of the breech of a musket barrel, by which the barrel is secured to the stock.
      • The rifle carried a vernier sight on the tang[…]1985, Cormac McCarthy, chapter IV, in Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC
5. A shuffleboard paddle.
6. (broadly) Anything resembling a tongue in form or position, such as the tongue of a buckle.

Noun (2)

tang (plural tangs)

1. A sharp, twanging sound; an unpleasant tone; a twang.

Verb

tang (third-person singular simple present tangs, present participle tanging, simple past and past participle tanged)

1. (dated) To strike two metal objects together loudly in order to persuade a swarm of honeybees to land so it may be captured by the beekeeper.
2. To make a ringing sound; to ring.
   • let thy tongue tang arguments of statec. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Noun (3)

tang (countable and uncountable, plural tangs)

1. (rare) knotted wrack, Ascophyllum nodosum (coarse blackish seaweed)

Noun (4)

tang (countable and uncountable, plural tangs)

1. (countable, vulgar) The vagina or vulva.
   • The guys like to look at her tang, because that's how they are […]2002, Lynn Breedlove, Godspeed, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 9
2. (uncountable, vulgar) Sexual intercourse with a woman

Noun (5)

tang (plural tangs)

1. Any of a group of saltwater fish from the family Acanthuridae, especially the genus Zebrasoma.

   Synonyms:

   surgeonfish

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang

1. Tang Dynasty, the imperial dynasty of China which reigned from 618 to 907.
   • The two sculptures, which were part of religious rites, belong to the Tang dynasty, which ruled between 618 and 907 AD and is considered a golden period of the Chinese civilization.2023 October 26, “Australia returns three smuggled historical artifacts to China”, in EFE, sourced from Sydney, Australia (EFE), archived from the original on 26 Oct 2023, Culture, Latest news
2. Later Tang, the Turkic dynasty of China which lasted from 923 to 936.
   • Empress Liu (ca. 890-926 A.D.), whose birthplace was Chenan in Wei (now Chenan county, Hebei province), was the wife of Li Cunxu, who reigned as Emperor Zhuangzong, during the Tang dynasty.2000, Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century, M.E. Sharpe, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 235
3. Southern Tang. A kingdom in China which existed between 937 and 975.
4. Any of a number of places in China.
   1. A county of Baoding, Hebei, China.
      • A biography of Hu claims that Hu's attitudes changed in 1961, after he was sent to supervise agricultural policy changes in Tang county, Hebei province.1996, Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine, The Free Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 328
5. A Chinese surname from Mandarin.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang (plural Tangs)

1. A Chinese surname from Mandarin.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang (plural Tangs)

1. A Chinese surname from Cantonese.

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang (plural Tangs)

1. A Chinese surname from Cantonese.

Proper noun (5) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang (plural Tangs)

1. A Chinese surname from Teochew.

Proper noun (6) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang (plural Tangs)

1. A Chinese surname from Hokkien.

Proper noun (7) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang

1. Any of a number of places, including a village in Iran and a village in Afghanistan.

Proper noun (8) capitalized: Tang

IPA/tæŋ/

Tang

1. A gewog of Bumthang District, Bhutan.