tank

UK:**UK and possibly other pronunciationsUK and possibly other pronunciations/ˈtæŋk/US:USA pronunciation: IPA and respellingUSA pronunciation: IPA/tæŋk/ ,USA pronunciation: respelling(tangk)


WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
tank /tæŋk/USA pronunciation   n. [countable]
  1. a large container for holding a liquid or gas:a full tank of gas.
  2. Militaryan armored combat vehicle, moving on a belt of treads and usually armed with a cannon.
  3. Clothingtank top.
tank•ful, n. [countable], pl. -fuls. 

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
tank  (tangk),USA pronunciation n. 
  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. Militaryan armored, self-propelled combat vehicle, armed with cannon and machine guns and moving on a caterpillar tread.
  4. Slang Termsa prison cell or enclosure for more than one occupant, as for prisoners awaiting a hearing.
  5. ClothingSee tank top. 
  6. Sport go in 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.

v.t. 
  1. to put or store in a tank.
  2. tank up:
    • to fill the gas tank of an automobile or other motor vehicle.
    • Slang Termsto drink a great quantity of alcoholic beverage, esp. to intoxication.
  3. Slang Termsto do poorly or decline rapidly;
    fail:The movie tanked at the box office.
  • 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)
  • Gujarati tānkh reservoir, lake, and Portuguese tanque, contraction of estanque pond, literally, something dammed up, derivative of estancar (
  • perh. jointly 1610–20
tank′less, adj. 
tank′like′, adj. 

tank, +v.i. 
  1. Slang Termsto do poorly or decline rapidly;
    fail:The movie tanked at the box office.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
tank /tæŋk/ n
  1. a large container or reservoir for the storage of liquids or gases
  2. an armoured combat vehicle moving on tracks and armed with guns, etc, originally developed in World War I
  3. Brit US dialect a reservoir, lake, or pond
  4. slang chiefly US a jail
  5. Also called: tankful the quantity contained in a tank
  6. Austral a dam formed by excavation
 vb
  1. (transitive) to put or keep in a tank
  2. (transitive) slang to defeat heavily
Etymology: 17th Century: 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
'tank' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
aquarium - armour - back boiler - ball cock - baptistry - bunker - Caterpillar - cistern - depleted uranium - draw - drunk tank - fill up - filter bed - gasholder - header - hull - immersion heater - kill - Leonardo da Vinci - manhole - neo-con - overflow - panzer - pod - pylon - reservoir - sedimentation tank - Seppo - septic - septic tank - sponson - standpipe - tankage - tank engine - tank farming - tank top - tank up - tank wagon - think-tank - track - water gauge - water softener - water tower - aerial tanker - airhose - airpack - air valve - antitank - baptistery - bazooka
Collocations: sent in the tanks and troops, the tanks [fired on, crushed, destroyed], need to clean the fish tank, more...

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