tank

American  

[tangk] / tæŋk /

noun

• tanks
  plural

1. a large receptacle, container, or structure for holding a liquid or gas.

   tanks for storing oil.

2. a natural or artificial pool, pond, or lake.

3. Military. an armored, self-propelled combat vehicle, armed with cannon and machine guns and moving on a caterpillar tread.

4. (in a video game) a category of job classes in a role-playing game, best suited to withstand large amounts of damage from an enemy.

   The only decent tank in this game is Warrior, just because the cooldown period for the Paladin and Dark Knight skills is way too long.

5. Slang. a prison cell or enclosure for more than one occupant, as for prisoners awaiting a hearing.

6. tank top.

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verb (used with object)

• tanks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tanked,
  past participle,  past
• tanking
  present participle

1. to put or store in a tank.

2. (in a video game) to provoke and hold the attention of (an enemy character) so that it does not target other player characters in the party who are less able to withstand large amounts of damage.

   If you’re properly tanking this boss, you’ll never let him face your mages.

verb (used without object)

• tanks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tanked,
  past participle,  past
• tanking
  present participle

1. Slang. to do poorly or decline rapidly; fail.

   The movie tanked at the box office.

verb phrase

1. tank up

   1. to fill the gas tank of an automobile or other motor vehicle.

   2. Slang. to drink a great quantity of alcoholic beverage, especially to intoxication.

idioms

1. go in / into the tank, to go through the motions of a match but deliberately lose because of an illicit prearrangement or fix; throw a fight.

2. in the tank,

   1. failing, doing poorly, or declining.

      His grades were in the tank last quarter.

   2. favoring, colluding, or assisting in a partisan way (often followed by with orfor ).

      The talk-show host was in the tank with the Green Party.

tank British  

/ tæŋk /

noun

1. a large container or reservoir for the storage of liquids or gases

   tanks for storing oil

2. 1. an armoured combat vehicle moving on tracks and armed with guns, etc, originally developed in World War I

   2. ( as modifier )

      a tank commander

      a tank brigade

3. dialect a reservoir, lake, or pond

4. photog

   1. a light-tight container inside which a film can be processed in daylight, the solutions and rinsing waters being poured in and out without light entering

   2. any large dish or container used for processing a number of strips or sheets of film

5. slang

   1. a jail

   2. a jail cell

6. Also called: tankful.  the quantity contained in a tank

7. a dam formed by excavation

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verb

1. (tr) to put or keep in a tank

2. (intr) to move like a tank, esp heavily and rapidly

3. slang to defeat heavily

4. informal (intr) to fail, esp commercially

tank More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing tank

• think tank

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tankless
  adjective
• tanklike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tanks
  plural

Participles

• tanking
  present
• tanked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tank
  simple
• tanks
  simple
• have tanked
  perfect
• has tanked
  perfect
• am tanking
  progressive
• are tanking
  progressive
• is tanking
  progressive
• have been tanking
  perfect progressive
• has been tanking
  perfect progressive

Past

• tanked
  simple
• had tanked
  perfect
• was tanking
  progressive
• were tanking
  progressive
• had been tanking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tank
  simple
• will have tanked
  perfect
• will be tanking
  progressive
• will have been tanking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of tank

First recorded in 1610–20; perhaps jointly from Gujarati tānkh “reservoir, lake,” and Portuguese tanque, shortening of estanque “pond,” literally, “something dammed up,” derivative of estancar, from Vulgar Latin stanticāre (unattested) “to dam up, weaken”; adopted as a cover name for the military vehicle during the early stages of its manufacture in England (December 1915)

Explanation

A tank is a large container for gases or liquids, like a tank of oil. Another kind of tank is an armored military vehicle with a cannon. If you see that kind of tank driving down the road, run for cover! There are two main kinds of tanks. One kind is a container for water, oil, natural gas, or other liquids and gases. Some houses have fuel oil tanks outside or in the basement. The other kind of tank is a large powerful military vehicle. A tank — which has a cannon — rolls across the ground on treads and is heavily armored. Those tanks can roll right over cars and anything else they want to squish.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tank tanks tanked tanking

U Min Zin, the director at a think tank focused on Myanmar, was arrested on 3 June after travelling to the Chinese city of Kunming for an academic conference.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

In late May, a chemical storage tank with more than 7,000 gallons of toxic material began heating up – fast.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, a think tank in London.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

"I have the impression that they peaked in the last election and now people are sort of tired of them," said the think tank employee.

From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026

A storage tank blocked the road leading to units 1 through 4.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

Spacious, chilly and cloaked in an earthy scent, they hold hundreds of oak barrels and several towering steel tanks full of maturing wine.

From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026

In Marawi, a city long-identified with a bloody showdown between government forces and jihadists, AFP journalists saw long lines of voters peacefully queued outside polling stations with tanks and security personnel standing watch.

From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026

It requires water agencies to have backup power that could keep pumps running in an outage and to top off any water tanks after a notification from county emergency officials about dangerous weather conditions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

If the market tanks in the first few years after you stop contributing, it could greatly reduce how much you have in retirement years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

First thing I did was pull the plastic box out from my closet and noisily paw through all the LEGOs, picking out the red and black Aquanauts with the little oxygen tanks on their backs.

From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings

The goofy, R-rated “Starship Troopers” famously tanked domestically among adults, but was a notable hit among teen boys, who sneaked into the flick in droves.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026

This marks the second consecutive time Old Man Markey has fended off a former rising star in the party, having tanked Joe Kennedy III’s challenge in 2020.

From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026

“On Running has been having year-over-year growth that is unseen, and they still get tanked when earnings come through.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

After Warsh’s second press conference as Fed chief Wednesday, stocks tanked and bonds also reacted badly.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026

And then, of course, the economy tanked and the country defaulted on its debt.

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

Advisers don’t see the recent bond selloff as a red flag indicating a tanking economy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

This week: Situational Awareness—an A.I.-forward hedge fund led by a former wunderkind and OpenAI employee—was tanking fast until a rival fund stepped in.

From Slate ● Aug. 1, 2026

Tokyo's Nikkei index was sharply lower, with Kioxia tanking 9.5 percent, Advantest off six percent down and Tokyo Electron five percent lower.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

But, when Mozeliak and I sat down in the Angels’ dugout the other day, he explained that the path forward in Anaheim should not be tanking.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026

The stocks of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were tanking, and it was clear that nothing short of the U.S. government could save them.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Related Words

• pond
• pool
• reservoir