Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TANG, v.i.

To ring with. [Not in use.] Shak. [This may be allied to ding, dong.]

TAN'GENT, n. [Fr. tangente; L. tangens, touching. See Touch.]

In geometry, a right line which touches a curve, but which when produced, does not cut it. In trigonometry, the tangent of an arc, is a right line touching the arc at one extremity, and terminated by a secant passing through the other extremity.

TAN-GI-BIL'I-TY, or TAN'GI-BLE-NESS, n. [from tangible.]

The quality of being perceptible to the touch or sense of feeling.

TAN'GI-BLE, a. [from L. tango, to touch.]

1. Perceptible by the touch; tactile.
2. That may be possessed or realized.

TAN'GI-BLY, adv.

Perceptibly to the touch.

TAN'GLE, n.

1. A knot of threads or other things united confusedly, or so interwoven as not to be easily disengaged; as, hair or yarn in tangles. Milton.
2. A kind of sea weed.

TAN'GLE, v.i.

To be entangled or united confusedly.

TAN'GLE, v.t. [This word, if n is casual, seems to be allied to the W. tagu, to choke, Goth. taga, hair; from crowding together. In Ar. دَجَا dagaa, signifies to involve.]

1. To implicate; to unite or knit together confusedly; to interweave or interlock, as threads, so as to make it difficult to ravel the knot.
2. To insnare; to entrap; as, to be tangled in the folds of dire necessity. Milton. Tangled in amorous nets. Milton.
3. To embroil; to embarrass. When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in forbidden ways. Crashaw. [Entangle, the compound, is the more elegant word.]

TAN'GLED, pp.

United confusedly.

TAN'GLING, ppr.

Uniting without order.

TAN'GLING-LY, adv.

In a tangling manner.

TAN'IST, n. [Gaelic, tanaiste, a lord, the governor of a country; in Ireland, the heir apparent of a prince; probably from tan, a region or territory, or from the Gr. δυναστης, a lord, which is from δυναμαι, to be powerful or able, the root of the Gaelic duine, a man. But both may be of one family, the root tan, ten, Gr. τεινω, L. teneo, W. tannu, to stretch, strain or hold.]

Among the descendants of the Celts in Ireland, a lord, or the proprietor of a tract of land; a governor or captain. This office or rank was elective, and often obtained by purchase or bribery. Davies.

TAN'IST-RY, n. [Gaelic, tanaisteachd.]

In Ireland, a tenure of lands by which the proprietor had only a life estate, and to this he was admitted by election. The primitive intention seems to have been that the inheritance should descend to the oldest or most worthy of the blood and name of the deceased. This was in reality giving it to the strongest, and the practice often occasioned bloody wars in families. Davies. Cyc.

TANK, n. [Fr. etang, a pond; Sp. estanque; Port. tanque; Sans. tanghi; Japan, tange. This seems to be from the root of stanch, to stop, to hold.]

A large bason or cistern; a reservoir of water. Dryden.

TANK'ARD, n. [Ir. tancaird; Gaelic, tancard; tank and ard.]

A large vessel for liquors, or a drinking vessel, with a cover. Marius was the first who drank out of a silver tankard, after the manner of Bacchus. Arbuthnot.

TANK'ARD-TUR-NEP, n.

A sort of turnep that stands high above the ground. Cyc.

TAN'LING, n.

One tanned or scorched by the heat of the sun.

TAN'NED, pp. [from tan.]

1. Converted into leather. [See Tan.]
2. Darkened by the rays of the sun.

TAN'NER, n.

One whose occupation is to tan hides, or convert them into leather by the use of tan.

TAN'NER-Y, n.

The house and apparatus for tanning.

TAN'NI-ER, n.

One of the popular names of the Arum esculentum, an esculent root. Mease.

TAN'NIN, n.

The name formerly applied to the tannic acid, before its acid character was known and understood. This acid is the principle of astringency in vegetables, as, for example, the bark of the oak, chestnut and gall-nuts. It is the substance used to change raw hides into leather.

TAN'NING, n.

The practice, operation and art of converting the raw hides of animals into leather by the use of tan.

TAN'NING, ppr.

Converting raw hides into leather.

TAN'-PIT, n. [tan and pit.]

A bark pit; a vat in which hides are laid in tan.