tank

American  

[tangk] / tæŋk /

noun

• tanks
  plural

1. a large receptacle, container, or structure for holding a liquid or gas.

   tanks for storing oil.

2. a natural or artificial pool, pond, or lake.

3. Military. an armored, self-propelled combat vehicle, armed with cannon and machine guns and moving on a caterpillar tread.

4. (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.

5. Slang. a prison cell or enclosure for more than one occupant, as for prisoners awaiting a hearing.

6. tank top.

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verb (used with object)

• tanks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tanked,
  past participle,  past
• tanking
  present participle

1. to put or store in a tank.

2. (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)

• tanks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tanked,
  past participle,  past
• tanking
  present participle

1. Slang. to do poorly or decline rapidly; fail.

   The movie tanked at the box office.

verb phrase

1. tank up

   1. to fill the gas tank of an automobile or other motor vehicle.

   2. Slang. to drink a great quantity of alcoholic beverage, especially to intoxication.

idioms

1. 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.

2. in the tank,

   1. failing, doing poorly, or declining.

      His grades were in the tank last quarter.

   2. 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.

tank British  

/ tæŋk /

noun

1. a large container or reservoir for the storage of liquids or gases

   tanks for storing oil

2. 1. an armoured combat vehicle moving on tracks and armed with guns, etc, originally developed in World War I

   2. ( as modifier )

      a tank commander

      a tank brigade

3. dialect a reservoir, lake, or pond

4. photog

   1. 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

   2. any large dish or container used for processing a number of strips or sheets of film

5. slang

   1. a jail

   2. a jail cell

6. Also called: tankful.  the quantity contained in a tank

7. a dam formed by excavation

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verb

1. (tr) to put or keep in a tank

2. (intr) to move like a tank, esp heavily and rapidly

3. slang to defeat heavily

4. informal (intr) to fail, esp commercially

tank More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing tank

• think tank

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tankless
  adjective
• tanklike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tanks
  plural

Participles

• tanking
  present
• tanked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tank
  simple
• tanks
  simple
• have tanked
  perfect
• has tanked
  perfect
• am tanking
  progressive
• are tanking
  progressive
• is tanking
  progressive
• have been tanking
  perfect progressive
• has been tanking
  perfect progressive

Past

• tanked
  simple
• had tanked
  perfect
• was tanking
  progressive
• were tanking
  progressive
• had been tanking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tank
  simple
• will have tanked
  perfect
• will be tanking
  progressive
• will have been tanking
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tank tanks tanked tanking

The move comes as the U.S. and other Western governments race to secure the raw materials that are used in tank armor, weapons and engine components, but are largely controlled by China.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

An independent AFP investigation concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area inside Israel.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

Some 40% of adults considered tank tops or vest tops acceptable for women at work, compared with only 24% who said the same for men, according to Ipsos.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Mozeliak had said the Angels should not need a total rebuild because the resources available to a major-market team should mitigate the need to tank and just play kids.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

Everyone in the North End knew why the tank shattered—because it wasn’t built right.

From "I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919" by Lauren Tarshis

So now, players have access to infrared beds, sensory deprivation tanks and AI-led massage chairs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

Andre Lavoie joined SpaceX in 2009 as an engineer, designing the pressure tanks that help power its rocket.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The sailors anxiously watched as tugboats battled the blaze that had engulfed storage tanks.

From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026

These sacs act much like the ballast tanks of a submarine.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026

He went back to his old thought experiment and began to study it carefully, this time with the help of real tanks, real blocks of wood and pieces of marble.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

“On Running has been having year-over-year growth that is unseen, and they still get tanked when earnings come through.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 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

“You’re right. I wasn’t honest with people. And before I knew it, the paper chain was taking off, and if I told the truth, it might have tanked the whole thing.”

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

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

Its bonds, meanwhile, are tanking, with longer-dated paper now trading at a two-percentage-point yield premium to Treasury debt, taking losses on the $25 billion sale past $300 million, according to Bloomberg.

From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026

And it was ripe with free-throw-abetting fouls by the Washington Wizards, an actively tanking team that got itself blown out, 150-129.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2026

Because of this remark, oil prices, which had been soaring, plummeted—and the stock market, which had been tanking, recovered much of the day’s losses.

From Slate ● Mar. 10, 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

Related Words

• pond
• pool
• reservoir