tallow
Americannoun
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the fatty tissue or suet of animals.
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the harder fat of sheep, cattle, etc., separated by melting from the fibrous and membranous matter naturally mixed with it, and used to make candles, soap, etc.
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any of various similar fatty substances.
vegetable tallow.
verb (used with object)
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tallows,
present (3rd person singular)
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tallowed,
past participle, past
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tallowing
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tallowsimple
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tallowssimple
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have tallowedperfect
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has tallowedperfect
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am tallowingprogressive
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are tallowingprogressive
-
is tallowingprogressive
-
have been tallowingperfect progressive
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has been tallowingperfect progressive
Past
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tallowedsimple
-
had tallowedperfect
-
was tallowingprogressive
-
were tallowingprogressive
-
had been tallowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tallow
1300–50; Middle English talow, talgh; cognate with German Talg
Explanation
In the old days, candles were mostly made from tallow, a form of animal fat that provided an inexpensive way for people to light their homes at night. Tallow is rendered animal fat, most often from beef or mutton. It's similar to suet or lard, other forms of animal fat, and has been useful in various ways through the years because it doesn't go bad at room temperature, stays solid, and is cheap. Today it's most commonly used for soap making or animal feed, though it can also be used in making biodiesel fuel.
Vocabulary lists containing tallow
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Crispin: The Cross of Lead
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Old Yeller
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Steak ’n Shake doesn’t make health claims about grass-fed beef or tallow, but the company believes its customers feel better about the chain’s food.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
In many corners of the internet, tallow isn’t marketed simply as a moisturizer but as a return to something more primal and distinctly masculine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Dr. Heather Rogers, a dermatologist in Seattle and founder of the Doctor Rogers skincare line, told me that there are few modern scientific studies examining beef tallow as a skincare ingredient.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The Make America Healthy Again movement, for which Kennedy is the de facto leader, promotes a diet heavy in meat and animal products, such as butter, beef tallow and raw milk.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
For two days they had been boiling the small gray bayberries that Kit and Judith had gathered in the fields, and Rachel had skimmed off the thick greenish tallow.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
I applied beef and bison tallows from three companies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The viscosity will vary from light spindle or dynamo oils, which have but little more body than kerosene, to the heaviest greases and tallows.
From Aviation Engines Design?Construction?Operation and Repair by Victor Wilfred Pag?
Most of the Australasian tallows are of very uniform quality and much in demand.
From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by W. H. Simmons
Although the warp yarn is made very soft and pliable by boiling and beetling, the weaver always tallows it in order to make it work more easily.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay" by Various
Milling-base.—The materials generally used are tallows and cocoa-nut oils of the finest quality.
From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by W. H. Simmons
"I've never tried to make my figures come out this way," he explained last week, pointing to a tall figure reminiscent of a grotesquely tallowed candle.
From Time Magazine Archive
"But in running in for the town, you kept the lead going, out of question, and must have tallowed as usual."
From Pathfinder; or, the inland sea by James Fenimore Cooper
The hunters had killed and salted an incredible quantity of beef and pork, the ships were scraped and tallowed, and nothing more was to be done save to divide the victuals among all the buccaneers.
From On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. by John Masefield
"It is a plant," says the Grete Herball, "whereof is made a manner of lynke if it be tallowed."
From Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by William Thomas Fernie
He tallowed the lead and heaved it, and brought it down to Weeks.
From Ensign Knightley and Other Stories by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
While the ships, however, were on the keel, and the men busy heaving, scrubbing, and tallowing, they were attacked by a large body of the natives.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume III (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Walter Thornbury
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