tallow

American  

[tal-oh] / ˈtæl oʊ /

noun

1. the fatty tissue or suet of animals.

2. 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.

3. any of various similar fatty substances.

   vegetable tallow.

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verb (used with object)

tallows, present (3rd person singular) tallowed, past participle, past tallowing present participle

1. to smear with tallow.

tallow British  

/ ˈtæləʊ /

noun

1. a fatty substance consisting of a mixture of glycerides, including stearic, palmitic, and oleic acids and extracted chiefly from the suet of sheep and cattle: used for making soap, candles, food, etc

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verb

1. (tr) to cover or smear with tallow

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tallowy
  adjective
• untallowed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• tallowing
  present
• tallowed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tallow
  simple
• tallows
  simple
• have tallowed
  perfect
• has tallowed
  perfect
• am tallowing
  progressive
• are tallowing
  progressive
• is tallowing
  progressive
• have been tallowing
  perfect progressive
• has been tallowing
  perfect progressive

Past

• tallowed
  simple
• had tallowed
  perfect
• was tallowing
  progressive
• were tallowing
  progressive
• had been tallowing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tallow
  simple
• will have tallowed
  perfect
• will be tallowing
  progressive
• will have been tallowing
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tallow tallows tallowed tallowing

As I ended my visit, the strong smell of tallow drifted from massive smokers across the street at Heritage Barbecue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 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

New nutrition guidance from the American Heart Association advises getting protein from plants rather than meat, choosing low-fat or fat-free dairy and using olive, soybean and canola oils instead of beef tallow and butter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026

Full-fat dairy is encouraged, while butter and beef tallow are viewed as acceptable.

From Barron's ● Jan. 7, 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

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

It often happens, especially with the tallows, that a dark colored sample produces a light colored soap, whereas a bleached light colored tallow produces a soap off shade.

From Soap-Making Manual A Practical Handbook on the Raw Materials, Their Manipulation, Analysis and Control in the Modern Soap Plant. by Thomssen, E. G.

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 Beecher, Catharine Esther

Most of the Australasian tallows are of very uniform quality and much in demand.

From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by Simmons, W. H.

North American tallows are, as a general rule, much paler in colour than those of South America, but do not compare with them in consistence.

From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by Simmons, W. H.

"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

No vessel would go far unless its under-water parts were either sheathed, tarred, or tallowed; for sea-worms burrow alarmingly, and 'whiskers' grow like the obnoxious weeds they are.

From All Afloat A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways by Wood, William Charles Henry

The ways have been tallowed for us, thus far, and I don't fully understand it.

From The Grafters by Lynde, Francis

Never did a Jersey "jay" in Sunday clothes and tallowed boots respond to a bunco steerer's greeting with a gladder smile than mine to that pious old past-master of craft.

From The Deluge by Phillips, David Graham

When that was done, we heeled her, scrubbed her Bottom, and tallowed it.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 39 of 55 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Volume XXXIX: 1683-1690 by Blair, Emma Helen

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