Etymology
Origin of tanked
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.
Production tanked during the first and second Gulf Wars.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Earlier this year, Bitcoin tanked amid a selloff in software stocks triggered by concerns about AI automation.
From Barron's • Apr. 21, 2026
Panic buying fuel in Sri Lanka has brought back memories of 2022, when the economy tanked, with inflation hitting 70 percent after Colombo defaulted on its $46 billion external debt.
From Barron's • Apr. 4, 2026
Early in his L.A. tenure, Walden landed a solid gig scoring movies made for television, a business that tanked with the advent of reality TV.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026
We’d taken the test the Monday after Marcus’s party, and I knew I’d tanked it when I turned it in.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
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.
