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
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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:
Cooking with beef tallow versus soybean oil is one example, said Alison Steiber, chief impact officer for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Animal-derived skin care products are gaining popularity, from salmon sperm facials to moisturizers made with beef tallow — the fat around a cow’s internal organs.
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
The fat tallow candles on the tables gave off more smoke than light, and the wine that Davos ordered looked more brown than red in the gloom.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
I applied beef and bison tallows from three companies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
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
Most of the Australasian tallows are of very uniform quality and much in demand.
From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by W. H. Simmons
The oil and tallows which are chiefly carbon and hydrogen, unite with the oxygen of the air and form carbonic acid and watery vapor, producing heat during the process.
From American Woman's Home by Catharine Esther Beecher
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?
"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
The ways have been tallowed for us, thus far, and I don't fully understand it.
From The Grafters by Francis Lynde
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
When a whaling ship is beset in the ice of Davis Straits, there is little work for her second engineer, once the engines have been nicely tallowed down.
From The Literary World Seventh Reader by John Calvin Metcalf
"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
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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