Word.ws English Dictionary

tarp

/tɑːp/US/tɑɹp/

tarp is the clipping of tarpaulin.

Meaning of tarpaulin

Noun

tarpaulin (countable and uncountable, plural tarpaulins)

  1. (countable) A heavy, waterproof sheet of material, often cloth or plastic sheet, used as a cover or blanket (often as weatherproofing, or to keep loose cargo from blowing off a lorry).
    • Throw a tarpaulin over that woodpile before it gets wet.
  2. (archaic, uncountable) Canvas waterproofed with tar, used as a cover.
  3. (archaic) A hat made of, or covered with, painted or tarred cloth, worn by sailors and others.
    • Near-synonym: rain hat
    Synonyms:
    rain hat
  4. (archaic, countable, slang) A sailor.
    Synonyms:
    tar

See all 5 meanings of tarpaulin

Verb

tarp (third-person singular simple present tarps, present participle tarping, simple past and past participle tarped)

  1. To cover something with a tarpaulin.
    • The load may be tarped for serious white water, but tarped or not, everything should be tied securely in case of capsize.2001, Verne Huser, River Running: Canoeing, Kayaking, Rowing, Rafting, page 136

Proper noun capitalized: TARP

TARP

  1. (US, abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Forms of tarp

Noun
pluraltarps
Verb
third-person singular presenttarps
present participletarping
past participletarped
pasttarped

Origin of tarp

Clipping of tarpaulin.

Words that rhyme with tarp

Questions about tarp

What does tarp mean?
Tarp means to cover something with a tarpaulin.
What is tarp the clipping of?
Tarp is the clipping of tarpaulin.
What part of speech is tarp?
Tarp can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tarp?
Tarp is pronounced /tɑːp/ (UK).
What is the past tense of tarp?
The past tense of tarp is tarped.

Words near tarp in the dictionary

  1. tarotologist
  2. tarotologists
  3. tarotology
  4. tarots
  5. Taroudant
  6. tarp
  7. tarpa
  8. tarpan
  9. tarpans
  10. tarpaper
  11. tarpapered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tarp (page history and authors); TARP (page history and authors); tarpaulin (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tarp.wav.

Cite this entry: “tarp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tarp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.