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RELATED WORDS

absorb, belt, booze, consume, dissipate, down, drain, gargle, gulp, guzzle, imbibe, indulge, inhale, irrigate, lap, nip, quaff, sip, slosh, sop

Nearby words

tanizaki, junichiro, tanjore, tanjungkarang, tanjungpandan, tanjungpriok, tank, tank car, tank destroyer, tank engine, tank farm, tank farming

Idioms

    go in/into the tank, Boxing Slang. to go through the motions of a match but deliberately lose because of an illicit prearrangement or fix; throw a fight.
    in the tank, Slang.
    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 or for): The talk-show host was in the tank with the Green Party.

Origin of tank

1610–20; perhaps jointly < Gujarati tānkh reservoir, lake, and Portuguese tanque, contraction of estanque pond, literally, something dammed up, derivative of estancar (< Vulgar Latin *stanticāre) to dam up, weaken; adopted as a cover name for the military vehicle during the early stages of its manufacture in England (December, 1915)
Related formstank·less, adjectivetank·like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for tank up (1 of 2)

tank up

verb (adverb) mainly British

to fill the tank of (a vehicle) with petrol
slang to imbibe or cause to imbibe a large quantity of alcoholic drink

British Dictionary definitions for tank up (2 of 2)

tank

/ (tæŋk) /

noun

verb

See also tank up
Derived Formstankless, adjectivetanklike, adjective

Word Origin for tank

C17: from Gujarati tānkh artificial lake, but influenced also by Portuguese tanque, from estanque pond, from estancar to dam up, from Vulgar Latin stanticāre (unattested) to block, stanch
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Idioms and Phrases with tank up (1 of 2)

tank up

1

Fill a gas tank with fuel, as in As soon as we tank up the car we can leave. [First half of 1900s]

2

Drink to the point of intoxication. F. Scott Fitzgerald used this expression in The Great Gatsby (1926): “I think he'd tanked up a good deal at luncheon.” This expression often is put in the passive, meaning “be or become intoxicated,” as in My roommate really got tanked up last night. [Slang; c. 1900]

Idioms and Phrases with tank up (2 of 2)

tank

In addition to the idiom beginning with tank

  • tank up

also see:

  • think tank
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.