tank
UK/ˈtæŋk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈtaŋk/
tank noun: a closed container for liquids or gases. Also the ellipsis of tank engine or tank locomotive.
Noun (1)
tank (plural tanks)
- A closed container for liquids or gases.
- The propane is stored in these tanks.
- The tank contains unfiltered water. You really shouldn't drink from that.
- An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids.
- The contractors installed a new tank with gorgeous fish and corals.
- The ore slurries are directed into an open tank outside the excavation site.
- A pond, pool, or small lake (either natural or artificial).
- The tanks are full and the grass is high.1896, Henry Lawson, Out Back
- The fuel reservoir of a vehicle.
- We have brought the van to a garage after we found a leak in the tank.
- The amount held by a container; a tankful.
- I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York.
- An armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a gun designed for direct fire, and moving on caterpillar tracks.
- The journalist mistook the self-propelled artillery vehicle for a tank.
- Few remember the female tanks that were produced between the World Wars.
- Synonyms:
- battle tank, combat tank, armour, tango
- A reservoir or dam (as it is known in the rest of Australia).
- A structure of tightly overlapping leaves used by some bromeliads to retain water.
- A very muscular and physically imposing person; somebody who is built like a tank.
- A bouncer or doorman.
- A unit or character designed primarily around damage absorption and holding the attention of the enemy (as opposed to dealing damage, healing, or other tasks).
- The paladin can make for a decent tank, but I recommend that you get a class with better taunting skills.
- See also: distraction carnifex
- A prison cell, or prison generally.
- drunk tank
- The sheriff threw us in the tank without charges!
- A metaphorical place where a player goes to contemplate a decision; see in the tank.
Verb
tank (third-person singular simple present tanks, present participle tanking, simple past and past participle tanked)
- To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet.
- He told me about all the odd jobs he'd taken after I was born, when Michigan's economy was tanking. For one, he crisscrossed the Midwest buying old carpets from dentists' offices.2008 October, Davy Rothbart, “How I caught up with dad”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 112
- "[...] If the economy has tanked... then we don't want to over-promise and under-deliver."2022 October 5, “Network News: Private sector's role in a publicly-owned railway”, in RAIL, number 967, page 16
- to flop; drop in popularity (of a musician/group)
- To attract the attacks of an enemy target in cooperative team-based combat, so that one's teammates can defeat the enemy in question more efficiently.
- To put (fuel, etc.) into a tank.
- Concrete below ground must be fully tanked to prevent water uptake.
- Sometimes oils are tanked for months or years at a time (e.g., linseed oil).1913, Geoffrey Martin, Industrial and manufacturing chemistry
- To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.
- Beforehand, Swedish [national ice hockey team] coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson had ruminated about tanking against Slovakia to avoid powerful Canada or the Czechs in the quarters [i.e., quarterfinals of the 2006 Winter Olympic tournament], telling Swedish television, "One is cholera, the other the...2006 March 6, Michael Farber, “Swede Success”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Sports Illustrated, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2012
- To resist damage; to be attacked without being hurt.
- Unless Bane can tank Helicarrier-busting explosions I'm not sure how he stands a chance.2015 March 1, DudeFuckMath, “Bane [DC] vs Iron Fist [Marvel]”, in Reddit (r/whowouldwin), retrieved 19 Jun 2017
- A weakened Superman tanked an explosion 50 times larger than the Kepler's Supernova and the electromagnetic shock wave hit him.2016 June 2, MercinWithAMouth, “Superman Stongest Feat Ever”, in Comic Vine Forums, retrieved 19 Jun 2017
- To contemplate a decision for a long time; to go in the tank.
- To stand; to tolerate.
- To willingly take on an undesirable task or burden.
Noun (2)
tank (plural tanks)
- A small Indian dry measure, averaging 240 grains in weight.
- A Bombay weight of 72 grains, for pearls.
Proper noun capitalized: Tank
Tank
- A city in Tank district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
- A district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Also used as
tank is also the ellipsis of tank engine or tank locomotive.
tank is also the ellipsis of tank top.
tank meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
tank in Hindi
- closed container for fluids
- टंकी ṭaṅkī, हौज़ hauz
- fuel reservoir
- टंकी ṭaṅkī
- armoured fighting vehicle
- टैंक ṭaiṅk
tank in Tamil
- large metal container for water
- தொட்டி toṭṭi
- closed container for fluids
- தொட்டி toṭṭi
- open container for liquids
- தொட்டி toṭṭi
- pond, pool, or small lake, natural or artificial
- கண்மாய் kaṇmāy
tank in Marathi
- closed container for fluids
- टाकी ṭākī
- open container for liquids
- टाकी ṭākī
- fuel reservoir
- टांकें ṭāṅkẽ
- armoured fighting vehicle
- रणगाडा raṇgāḍā
tank in Urdu
- closed container for fluids
- حَوض hauz
- armoured fighting vehicle
- ٹَینْک ṭaiṅk
More languagesFewer languages
- tank in Bengali
- ট্যাংক ṭêṅko
- tank in Telugu
- చెరువు ceruvu
- tank in Malayalam
- ടാങ്ക്
- tank in Kannada
- ಟ್ಯಾಂಕ್, ಟ್ಯಾಂಕು, ತೊಟ್ಟಿ
- tank in Punjabi
- ਟੈਂਕ, ਟੈਂਕੀ
- tank in Gujarati
- ટાંકી, ટેન્ક
- tank in Odia
- ଟ୍ଯ଼ାଙ୍କ, ଟ୍ଯ଼ାଙ୍କ୍, ଟାଙ୍କି
- tank in Sanskrit
- सेनायानम् senāyānam
- tank in Assamese
- টেংকি teṅki
- tank in Nepali
- ट्याङ्की, ट्याङ्क, ट्यांक
- tank in Pashto
- ټانک ṭānk
- tank in Tagalog
- tangke
- tank in Arabic
- فِنْطَاس finṭās, صِهْرِيج ṣihrīj, خَزَّان ḵazzān, دَبَّابَة dabbāba
- tank in Malay
- tangki, kereta kebal, tank
- tank in Indonesian
- tangki, tabung, mobil baja, tank
- tank in Persian
- تَانْکِی tānkī, حَوْض hawz, مَخْزَن maxzan, حُوْض howz
- tank in Thai
- ถัง tǎng, ถังน้ำ, รถถัง rót-tǎng, แท้งค์
- tank in Vietnamese
- thùng, bể, két, xe tăng
- tank in Myanmar
- တိုင်ကီ tuingki, တင့်ကား tang.ka:
- Dzongkha
- དམག་འཁོར dmag 'khor, ཏེངཀ tengk
Examples of tank in a sentence
- The other room was a kitchen, with an open fireplace, a safe, a dresser and a tin sink, with a tap from the tank outside.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 29:
- By the nature of being on a protective custody tank, a "gay tank", everyone there is seen as members of the lowest caste in the system.1985 April 13, Philip Brasfield, “Echoes Inside of What's Outside”, in Gay Community News, page 4:
- Barda could BFR and I doubt She hulk is tanking a blow from her rod, so she takes.2016 July 22, Si-Phon Dom, “Big Barda Vs She Hulk”, in Comics Amino, retrieved 19 Jun 2017:
Synonyms of tank
- battle tank
- combat tank
- armour
- tango
Antonyms
Forms of tank
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tanks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tanks |
| present participle | tanking |
| past participle | tanked |
| past | tanked |
Origin of tank
From Portuguese tanque (“tank, liquid container”), from an Indo-Aryan language, likely Gujarati ટાંકી (ṭā̃kī, “cistern”) or Marathi टांकी (ṭāṅkī). A false friend can be found in North Germanic: dunk (“canister, keg”), 17th c. tönk, which appears derived from both Low German tunneke, Dutch tonneke (diminutive of "barrel"), and dunka (“to dunk, to dip under water, to moisten”). * In the sense of armoured vehicle, prototypes were described as tanks for carrying water to disguise their nature and due to physical resemblance. First attested in 1915, but in common usage only as of 1916. Displaced landship, and mostly displaced battlewagon.
Borrowed from Urdu ٹانک.
Words formed from tank
- antitank
- anti-tank
- ballast tank
- battle tank
- bobbin tank
- built like a tank
- buoyancy tank
- cavalry tank
- combat tank
- cruiser tank
- cryotank
- detank
- dipping tank
- drop tank
- drunk tank
- dunk tank
- empty the tank
- expansion tank
- fast tank
- female tank
- fishtank
- fish tank
- flail tank
- flame tank
- flamethrower tank
- flexitank
- float tank
- flotation tank
- gas tank
- gravity tank
- gunbarrel tank
- gun barrel tank
- header tank
- heavy tank
- holding tank
- hydrotank
- Imhoff tank
- infantry tank
- intertank
- in the tank
- isolation tank
- landing craft tank
- leave nothing in the tank
- light tank
- main battle tank
- male tank
- medium tank
- microtank
- nanotank
- oxygen tank
- Pachuca tank
- pannier tank
- peekaboo tank top
- petrol tank
- retention tank
- saddle tank
- saddletank
- septic tank
- settlement tank
- shark tank
Phrases with tank
- tank up
- tank ace
- tank car
- tank top
- buay tank
- face tank
- fuel tank
- sump tank
- tank aces
- tank cars
- tank farm
- tank iron
52 more phrasesFewer phrases
- tank loaf
- tank park
- tank suit
- tank tops
- tank town
- tank trap
- Yank tank
- surge tank
- tank drama
- tank farms
- tank parks
- tank stand
- tank suits
- tank towns
- tank traps
- tank truck
- tank wagon
- think tank
- touch tank
- water tank
- tank dramas
- tank engine
- tank killer
- tank loaves
- tank sinker
- tank stands
- tank trucks
- tank wagons
- Tissot tank
- towing tank
- tank engines
- tank killers
- tank sinkers
- tank slapper
- tumbler tank
- tank controls
- tank slappers
- tank destroyer
- superheavy tank
- tank destroyers
- tank locomotive
- tank ventilator
- emptied the tank
- empties the tank
- tank locomotives
- tank ventilators
- emptying the tank
- haunted fish tank
- landing ship, tank
- peekaboo tank tops
- sugar in one's tank
- tiger in one's tank
Words that rhyme with tank
Questions about tank
- What does tank mean?
- Tank means a closed container for liquids or gases.
- What is tank in Hindi?
- Tank in Hindi is टंकी (ṭaṅkī), हौज़ (hauz), टैंक (ṭaiṅk). See Tank meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use tank in a sentence?
- The other room was a kitchen, with an open fireplace, a safe, a dresser and a tin sink, with a tap from the tank outside.
- What part of speech is tank?
- Tank can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tank?
- Tank is pronounced /ˈtæŋk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tank?
- The plural of tank is tanks.
Words near tank in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tank (page history and authors); Tank (page history and authors); tank (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tank (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tank (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tank (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tank (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tank (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tank.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tank.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tank. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.