tank
Americannoun
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a large receptacle, container, or structure for holding a liquid or gas.
tanks for storing oil.
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a natural or artificial pool, pond, or lake.
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Military. an armored, self-propelled combat vehicle, armed with cannon and machine guns and moving on a caterpillar tread.
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(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.
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Slang. a prison cell or enclosure for more than one occupant, as for prisoners awaiting a hearing.
verb (used with object)
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to put or store in a tank.
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(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)
verb phrase
idioms
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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.
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in the tank,
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failing, doing poorly, or declining.
His grades were in the tank last quarter.
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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.
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noun
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a large container or reservoir for the storage of liquids or gases
tanks for storing oil
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an armoured combat vehicle moving on tracks and armed with guns, etc, originally developed in World War I
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( as modifier )
a tank commander
a tank brigade
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dialect a reservoir, lake, or pond
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photog
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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
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any large dish or container used for processing a number of strips or sheets of film
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slang
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a jail
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a jail cell
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Also called: tankful. the quantity contained in a tank
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a dam formed by excavation
verb
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(tr) to put or keep in a tank
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(intr) to move like a tank, esp heavily and rapidly
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slang to defeat heavily
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informal (intr) to fail, esp commercially
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tanksimple
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tankssimple
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have tankedperfect
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has tankedperfect
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am tankingprogressive
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are tankingprogressive
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is tankingprogressive
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have been tankingperfect progressive
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has been tankingperfect progressive
Past
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tankedsimple
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had tankedperfect
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was tankingprogressive
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were tankingprogressive
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had been tankingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing tank
World War I
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"Modern Automotive Technology," Vocabulary from Section 4
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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:
Thinking the issue was water in the fuel tank, Mallon asked the bot for repair instructions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
The captain credited the GasLog Salem crew with quickly shutting gas tank valves, helping contain the fire.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
In a report last year, external, the Centre for Cities think tank advocated a devolved authority for the Glasgow City region which would "match policymaking and powers to the city-region's economy".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
The board singled out the persistent bombing of German oil and communications facilities as a factor that impeded the resupply of the Nazi tank army.
From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026
Back then, the molasses tank was just one of many strange things about America.
From "I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919" by Lauren Tarshis
There, rows of whirring white tanks filled with seawater host creatures like coral, giant clams and clownfish in what are meticulously controlled to resemble natural marine environments.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
These sacs act much like the ballast tanks of a submarine.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
Germany’s Rheinmetall talked of setting up three different factories, including one that its chief executive, Armin Papperger, said would be capable of churning out 400 new tanks a year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Storage tanks need a minimum amount of oil just to keep their pumps working; the industry calls it “tank bottoms.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Sam pushes the stick shift into gear, and the vehicle lurches forward, weed killer sloshing in the giant tanks behind us.
From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle
After Warsh’s second press conference as Fed chief Wednesday, stocks tanked and bonds also reacted badly.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
His Bedouin ancestors earned great wealth pearl diving—until foreign farmed pearls tanked the market and left the local economy in shambles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
You might want to lock in profits from a stock investment that has grown a lot, or sell something that tanked and use that loss for tax purposes to offset your gains.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
Tech shares in Asia tanked earlier this week following a similar sell-off in the US on Friday amid growing concerns about stretched valuations.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
I clicked up some history on the area, heavily industrial, at least until the economy tanked.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
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
As loss after loss piled up—and the good teams walked over their tanking opponents in contests that lost all meaning—players and coaches openly voiced their frustration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
