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)
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
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is tallowingprogressive
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have been tallowingperfect progressive
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has been tallowingperfect progressive
Past
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tallowedsimple
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had tallowedperfect
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was tallowingprogressive
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were tallowingprogressive
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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:
Each blended its tallow with additional ingredients — jojoba oil being the most significant.
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 enriched flour, high-fructose corn syrup, and tallow that help make up the American classic give each small sponge cake about 65 days to be consumed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 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
It was a wax candle, not tallow, and it was much used and melted.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
I applied beef and bison tallows from three companies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Most of the Australasian tallows are of very uniform quality and much in demand.
From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by Simmons, W. H.
Their only question will be that of their Legendre, or some oilier of their legislative butchers: How he cuts up; how he tallows in the caul or on the kidneys.
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 05 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund
Milling-base.—The materials generally used are tallows and cocoa-nut oils of the finest quality.
From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by Simmons, W. H.
There’s floors upon floors beneath, stored with jute and dye-woods, teas, coffees, spices, tobaccos, and lowest of all on the ground floor and in the cellarage, tallows in great hogsheads.
From Adventures of Working Men From the Notebook of a Working Surgeon by Fenn, George Manville
"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
Nothing now held the ship but a single iron dog which bound the two tallowed surfaces together.
From The Best Short Stories of 1919 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by O'Brien, Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington)
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 Masefield, John
"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 Cooper, James Fenimore
"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 Fernie, William Thomas
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 Thornbury, Walter
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.
