Word.ws English Dictionary

tar-and-feather

tar-and-feather is the alternative form of tar and feather.

Meaning of tar and feather

Verb

tar and feather (third-person singular simple present tars and feathers, present participle tarring and feathering, simple past and past participle tarred and feathered)

  1. (transitive) To cover (a person) in sticky tar, then cover in feathers which stick to the tar; an archaic means of humiliating a person.
    • 1855 — George A. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Volume 3 "Preaching the Gospel"
      "O," say they, "if you talk with a Mormon Elder, you are sure to get worsted; tar and feather them, mob them, and stone them out of the country, for if you listen to them, you will be deceived."

Forms of tar-and-feather

third-person singular presenttar-and-feathers
third-person singular presenttars-and-feathers
present participletar-and-feathering
present participletarring-and-feathering
past participletar-and-feathered
pasttar-and-feathered
past participletarred-and-feathered
pasttarred-and-feathered

Questions about tar-and-feather

What is tar-and-feather the alternative form of?
Tar-and-feather is the alternative form of tar and feather.

Words near tar-and-feather in the dictionary

  1. tar water
  2. tar waters
  3. tar with the same brush
  4. tar with the same stick
  5. tar'd
  6. tar-and-feather
  7. tar-and-feathered
  8. tar-and-feathering
  9. tar-and-feathers
  10. tar-black
  11. tar-boil

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tar-and-feather (page history and authors); tar and feather (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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Cite this entry: “tar-and-feather.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tar-and-feather. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.