Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TAM'BOR, v.t.

To embroider with a tambor.

TAM'BOR-IN, n. [Fr. tambourin, from tambour, tabor; Sp. tamboril. See Tabor.]

1. A small drum.
2. A lively French dance, formerly in vogue in operas. Cyc.

TAME, a. [Sax. tam; Dan. and D. tam; Sw. tam, tamd; G. zahm. See the verb.]

1. That has lost its native wildness and shyness; mild; accustomed to man; domestic; as, a tame deer; a tame bird.
2. Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless. And you, tame slaves of the laborious plow. Roscommon.
3. Spiritless; unanimated; as, a tame poem. [Not elegant nor in use.]

TAME, v.t. [Sax. tamian, getemian; Goth. ga-tamyan; Dan. tæmmer; Sw. tämia; D. tammen; G. zahmen; L. domo; Gr. δαμαω; Fr. dompter; Sp. and Port. domar; It. domare; Ch. and Heb. דו, to be silent, dumb; or Ar. كَظَمَ kathama, to restrain, to stop, shut, silence, subdue, tame. See Class Dm, No. 3, 25, and No. 23, 24.]

1. To reclaim; to reduce from a wild to a domestic state; to make gentle and familiar; as, to tame a wild beast.
2. To civilize; as, to tame the ferocious inhabitants of the forest.
3. To subdue; to conquer; to depress; as, to tame the pride or passions of youth.
4. To subdue; to repress; as wildness or licentiousness. The tongue can no man tame. James iii.

TAM-ED, pp.

Reclaimed from wildness; domesticated; made gentle; subdued.

TAME-LESS, a.

Wild; untamed; untamable. [Not much used.] Hall.

TAME-LY, adv.

With unresisting submission; meanly; servilely; without manifesting spirit; as, to submit tamely to oppression; to bear reproach tamely.

TAME-NESS, n.

1. The quality of being tame or gentle; a state of domestication.
2. Unresisting submission; meanness in bearing insults or injuries; want of spirit. Rogers.

TAM-ER, n.

One that tames or subdues; one that reclaims from wildness. Pope.

TAM-ING, ppr.

Reclaiming from a wild state; civilizing; subduing.

TAM'I-NY, or TAM'MY, n.

A wooden stuff. Johnson.

TAM'KIN, n.

A stopper. [See Tampion.]

TAM'PER, v.i.

1. To meddle; to be busy; to try little experiments; as, to tamper with a disease.
2. To meddle; to have to do with without fitness or necessity. 'Tis dangerous tamp'ring with a muse. Roscommon.
3. To deal; to practice secretly. Others tampered / For Fleetwood, Desborough and Lambert. Hudibras.

TAM'PER-ING, n.

The act of meddling or practicing secretly.

TAM'PER-ING, ppr.

Meddling; dealing; practicing secretly.

TAMP'ING, n. [allied probably to tame, dam, stem, stamp, &c.]

The matter that is driven into the hole bored into any thing for blasting. The powder being first put into the hole, and a tube for a conductor of the fire, the hole is rammed to fullness with brick-dust or other matter. This is called tamping.

TAM'PI-ON, or TOM'PI-ON, n. [Fr. tampon; Arm. tapon.]

The stopper of a cannon or other piece of ordnance, consisting of a cylinder of wood. Mar. Dict.

TAM'POE, n.

A fruit of the East Indies, somewhat resembling an apple. It is eaten by the natives, and called sometimes mangoustan, though a different fruit and less agreeable to the taste. Cyc.

TAM'TAM, n.

A large flat drum used by the Hindoos.

TAN, n.

The bark of the oak, &c. bruised and broken by a mill for tanning hides. It bears this name before and after it has been used. Tan, after being used in tanning, is used in gardening for making hot-beds; and it is also made into cakes and used as fuel.

TAN, v.t. [Fr. tanner, to tan; tanne, a little black spot on the face; It. tane, tawny color. Gregoire, in his Armoric dictionary, suggests that this may be from tan or dan, which in Leon signifies an oak. But this is very doubtful. In Ir. tionus signifies a tan-house, and tionsonaim, is to drop or distill. Spotting is often from sprinkling, and dyeing from dipping. In Gaelic, dean is color. It seems to be allied to tawny, and perhaps to dun.]

1. In the arts, to convert animal skins into leather by steeping them in an infusion of oak or some other bark, by which they are impregnated with tannin or tannic acid, an astringent substance which exists in several species of bark, and thus rendered firm, durable, and in some degree, impervious to water.
2. To make brown; to imbrown by exposure to the rays of the sun; as, to tan the skin. His face all tann'd with scorching sunny rays. Spenser.

TAN'-BED, n. [tan and bed.]

In gardening, a bed made of tan; a bark bed.

TAN'DEM, adv. [Horseman's Latin.]

Horses are harnessed tandem, when they are placed single, one before another. But tandem properly refers to time and not to length of line.

TAN'DOUR, n.

A Persian fireplace. Southgate.

TANG, n. [Gr. ταγγη, rancor; ταγγος, rancid; It. tanfo.]

1. A strong taste; particularly, a taste of something extraneous to the thing itself; as, wine or cider has a tang of the cask. Locke.
2. Relish; taste. [Not elegant.]
3. Something that leaves a sting or pain behind. She had a tongue with a tang. Shak.
4. Sound; tone. [Not in use.] Holder.