tank
Americannoun
-
tanks
plural
-
a large receptacle, container, or structure for holding a liquid or gas.
tanks for storing oil.
-
a natural or artificial pool, pond, or lake.
-
Military. an armored, self-propelled combat vehicle, armed with cannon and machine guns and moving on a caterpillar tread.
-
(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.
-
Slang. a prison cell or enclosure for more than one occupant, as for prisoners awaiting a hearing.
verb (used with object)
-
tanks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tanked,
past participle, past
-
tanking
present participle
-
to put or store in a tank.
-
(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
verb phrase
idioms
-
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.
-
in the tank,
-
failing, doing poorly, or declining.
His grades were in the tank last quarter.
-
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.
-
noun
-
a large container or reservoir for the storage of liquids or gases
tanks for storing oil
-
-
an armoured combat vehicle moving on tracks and armed with guns, etc, originally developed in World War I
-
( as modifier )
a tank commander
a tank brigade
-
-
dialect a reservoir, lake, or pond
-
photog
-
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
-
any large dish or container used for processing a number of strips or sheets of film
-
-
slang
-
a jail
-
a jail cell
-
-
Also called: tankful. the quantity contained in a tank
-
a dam formed by excavation
verb
-
(tr) to put or keep in a tank
-
(intr) to move like a tank, esp heavily and rapidly
-
slang to defeat heavily
-
informal (intr) to fail, esp commercially
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
tanksimple
-
tankssimple
-
have tankedperfect
-
has tankedperfect
-
am tankingprogressive
-
are tankingprogressive
-
is tankingprogressive
-
have been tankingperfect progressive
-
has been tankingperfect progressive
Past
-
tankedsimple
-
had tankedperfect
-
was tankingprogressive
-
were tankingprogressive
-
had been tankingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing tank
World War I
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"Modern Automotive Technology," Vocabulary from Section 4
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
As the fuel tank is within the chassis and therefore its size could not be changed, this meant those teams might not have been able to finish grands prix with their existing fuel tanks.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
My first full-time job was in the PR department of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, which I joined two months after Mr. Posner’s article appeared in 1988.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
“Kim’s major concern isn’t North Korean workers getting killed,” said Peter Ward, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think tank in Seoul.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
"Canada right now seems more interested than the UK to get as close to Brussels as possible, as a non member state" says Mark Lowen, director of the European Council of Foreign Relations think tank.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
I’m too aware of how frizzy my ponytail might get and how much skin my tank top shows.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
FFRDCs are government-funded, privately operated research centers that include private, non-profit think tanks and major research universities.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
At the project in Esbjerg in the south west of Denmark, carbon captured from around the country arrives in huge zeppelin-like tanks before being pumped into a ship called Carbon Destroyer 1.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Its lower mass also allowed the team to fill Roman's propellant tanks to capacity rather than carrying only enough fuel for the original 10-year mission.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
Spacious, chilly and cloaked in an earthy scent, they hold hundreds of oak barrels and several towering steel tanks full of maturing wine.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
A retired police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, told The New York Times, “I was offered tanks, bazookas, anything I wanted.”
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
The goofy, R-rated “Starship Troopers” famously tanked domestically among adults, but was a notable hit among teen boys, who sneaked into the flick in droves.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
The Lincoln’s extended deployment, already about three months longer than the typical carrier mission, appears to have tanked sailors’ morale.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
“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
After Warsh’s second press conference as Fed chief Wednesday, stocks tanked and bonds also reacted badly.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
I clicked up some history on the area, heavily industrial, at least until the economy tanked.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
Advisers don’t see the recent bond selloff as a red flag indicating a tanking economy.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
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
Suu Kyi travelled to The Hague to rebut charges of genocide against them at the UN's top court in 2019 -- tanking her reputation on the international circuit.
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
Sales of Chrysler’s gas-guzzling coupes and sedans were tanking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 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
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.
