Word.ws English Dictionary

tars and feathers

tars and feathers is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 tars and feathers

What is tars and feathers the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Tars and feathers is the third-person singular simple present indicative of tar and feather.

Words near tars and feathers in the dictionary

  1. tarryingly
  2. tarryings
  3. Tarrys
  4. Tarrytown
  5. tars
  6. tars and feathers
  7. tars out
  8. tars with the same brush
  9. tars with the same stick
  10. tars-
  11. tars-and-feathers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tars and feathers (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: “tars and feathers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tars_and_feathers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.