Word.ws English Dictionary

touch of the tar brush

touch of the tar brush noun: real or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry in a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry; mixed racial heritage (e.g. Afro-Caribbean or, to a lesser extent, South Asian in background or appearance).

Noun

touch of the tar brush (plural touches of the tar brush)

  1. (informal) Real or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry in a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry; mixed racial heritage (e.g. Afro-Caribbean or, to a lesser extent, South Asian in background or appearance).
    • She was quite young—not more than about twenty-five—and sort of dark and slinky-looking, if you know what I mean. Quite nice-looking in a kind of way, but rather as though she might have what my mother used to call "a touch of the tar-brush."1936, Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia, page 30

Synonyms of touch of the tar brush

Forms of touch of the tar brush

pluraltouches of the tar brush

Origin of touch of the tar brush

Believed to be of British origin.

Questions about touch of the tar brush

What does touch of the tar brush mean?
Touch of the tar brush means real or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry in a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry; mixed racial heritage (e.g. Afro-Caribbean or, to a lesser extent, South Asian in background or appearance).
What part of speech is touch of the tar brush?
Touch of the tar brush is a noun.
What is the plural of touch of the tar brush?
The plural of touch of the tar brush is touches of the tar brush.

Words near touch of the tar brush in the dictionary

  1. touch lines
  2. touch map
  3. touch maps
  4. touch move
  5. touch of the 'tism
  6. touch of the tar brush
  7. touch of the tarbrush
  8. touch off
  9. touch on
  10. touch one's forelock
  11. touch oneself

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: touch of the tar brush (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-touch of the tar brush.ogg.

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