tarp
noun
tarp
American
[tahrp]
/ tɑrp /
noun
-
tarps
plural
TARP
1
British
/ tɑːp /
acronym
tarp
2
British
/ tɑːp /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tarp
An Americanism dating back to 1905–10; by shortening
Explanation
A tarp is a piece of cloth that's usually waterproof canvas. When you're camping, it's a good idea to put a tarp on the damp ground before you set up your tent. Since 1906, the word tarp has been a common shorthand for tarpaulin. Today tarps are just as likely to be made from vinyl or polyethylene, but they were once uniformly heavy canvas that had been treated with tar to make it water resistant. Tarps are used for yard work, to cover furniture while a room is being painted, or to cover the bed of a truck, among many other uses.
Vocabulary lists containing tarp
Pride
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My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich
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Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World
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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:
Feygin’s mother grew up in Belarus, where she built a makeshift bathhouse from a tarp and generated steam with a woodstove.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
He likened conventional TMS to covering a leak with a tarp to manage its effects.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2026
Samantha Weldon, manager at the Silver City resort, still encourages people to tarp up, especially if they are embarking on a multiday hike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
But South Korea's heatwave has made it uninhabitable, forcing him to seek refuge under a makeshift tarp just a stone’s throw from Gangnam’s gleaming skyscrapers, where the wealthy remain cool in their aloof abodes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
I rigged a snow shelter and made a lean-to with a tarp and dug snow caves for the dogs and we holed up to wait until the worst of the cold had passed.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
Congress did pass legislation, TARP, with two components.
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2023
Casting aside his longstanding free-market philosophy, Mr. Bush asked Congress to authorize $700 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to prop up the banks.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2023
In the most dramatic floor vote in decades, the House of Representatives defeated the initial version of TARP.
From Fox News ● Aug. 9, 2020
Kashkari, 42, lost to Gov. Jerry Brown last year but is best known nationally for running the $700-billion bank bailout initiative known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, from 2008 to 2009.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2015
“We hated that we had to do it,” he says today of TARP.
From Washington Post
An equipment box labeled “Garden Party”! Mysterious shapes covered in black-plastic tarps!
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026
To create a movement, though, Pratt does not need to know what causes seas of tarps and tents.
From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026
Millions of people have fled the fighting and are living cheek-by-jowl in displacement camps, under tarps and tents and with poor hygiene conditions.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
They lower tarps and other objects over the names on their hulls and use black paint to conceal identity numbers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
Using tarps to make tents and extra shade, we set up a sturdier camp beside the wagon.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
