Word.ws English Dictionary

tarred and feathered

tarred and feathered is the simple past and past participle 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."

Questions about tarred and feathered

What is tarred and feathered the simple past and past participle of?
Tarred and feathered is the simple past and past participle of tar and feather.

Words near tarred and feathered in the dictionary

  1. Tarrawingee
  2. tarraxinha
  3. Tarrayoukyan
  4. tarre
  5. tarred
  6. tarred and feathered
  7. tarred out
  8. tarred with the same brush
  9. tarred with the same stick
  10. tarred-and-feathered
  11. Tarren

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tarred and feathered (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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