Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tan

Tan (tăn), n. [Chin.] See Picul.

Tan, n. [F. tan, perhaps fr. Armor. tann an oak, oak bar; or of Teutonic origin; cf. G. tanne a fir, OHG. tanna a fir, oak, MHG. tan a forest. Cf. Tawny.] 1. The bark of the oak, and some other trees, bruised and broken by a mill, for tanning hides; — so called both before and after it has been used. Called also tan bark.

2. A yellowish-brown color, like that of tan.

3. A brown color imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun; as, hands covered with tan.

Tan bed (Hort.), a bed made of tan; a bark bed. — Tan pickle, the liquor used in tanning leather. — Tan spud, a spud used in stripping bark for tan from trees. — Tan stove. See Bark stove, under Bark. — Tan vat, a vat in which hides are steeped in liquor with tan.

Tan, a. Of the color of tan; yellowish-brown.

Black and tan. See under Black, a.

Tan, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tanned; p. pr. & vb. n. Tanning.] [F. tanner, LL. tannare. See Tan, n.] 1. To convert (the skin of an animal) into leather, as by usual process of steeping it in an infusion of oak or some other bark, whereby it is impregnated with tannin, or tannic acid (which exists in several species of bark), and is thus rendered firm, durable, and in some degree impervious to water.

☞ The essential result in tanning is due to the fact that the tannins form, with gelatins and albuminoids, a series of insoluble compounds which constitute leather. Similar results may be produced by the use of other reagents in place of tannin, as alum, and some acids or chlorides, which are employed in certain processes of tanning.

2. To make brown; to imbrown, as by exposure to the rays of the sun; as, to tan the skin.

Tan (tăn), v. i. To get or become tanned.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.