Definitions for Tan

• Definition
• Anagrams (14)

Tan tan

Spelling: [tan]

IPA: /tæn/

Tan is a 3 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 3 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 4 points.

You can make 14 anagrams from letters in Tan (ant).

Definitions for Tan

noun

1. the brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun or open air.
2. yellowish brown; light brown.
3. tanbark.
4. tangent (def 5b).
5. Amy, born 1952, U.S. novelist.
6. tax-anticipation note.

Idioms

1. tan someone's hide, Informal. to beat someone soundly:

adjective

1. of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.
2. used in or relating to tanning processes, materials, etc.

verb (used with object)

1. to convert (a hide) into leather, especially by soaking or steeping in a bath prepared from tanbark or synthetically.
2. to make brown by exposure to ultraviolet rays, as of the sun.
3. Informal. to thrash; spank.

verb (used without object)

1. to become tanned.

Origin of Tan

before 1000; 1920-25 for def 2; Middle English tannen to make hide into leather, late Old English *tannian (in past participle getanned; cf. tanner¹) Med

Examples for Tan

During the season, he regularly takes a dugout seat where he can work on his tan.

His tan suggests he just stepped off a yacht or out of the pages of a J. Crew catalogue.

Let the leatherist guard his premises with a good-sized Black—and tan.

He had on tan pants and a white T-shirt, had a goatee, and his overgrown hair was held back to one side with a barrette.

tan also is due to pigment in the skin and is caused by light.

Little ricochets of dust kicked into the face of a tall man in a tan shalwar kameez and prayer cap.

He rose when she entered, and if he was not as pale as she was, it was because his tan dissembled it.

Code had gone a sickly pallor that looked hideous through his tan.

There was a dull flush showing through the tan of Fletcher's skin.

Otis says he was wearing a tan jacket similar to one described by witnesses.