Also 5–6 tanne, 6–7 tann. Pa. t. and pple. tanned. [Late OE. tannian, evidenced c. 1000 in pa. pple. ȝetanned, and agent-n. tannere, prob. f. med.L. tannāre (tanare in Erfurt Gl., a. 900) to tan (whence pa. pple. tannātus, in Du Cange), f. tannum TAN sb. Cf. also OF. tanner, taner (13th c. in Littré), whence app. the ME. and modern vb. Cf. also Du. tānen to tan, generally held to be from Fr.]
1. trans. To convert (skin or hide) into leather by steeping in an infusion of an astringent bark, as that of the oak, or by a similarly effective process.
c. 1000. [see TANNED 1].
[1321–2. Rolls of Parlt., I. 415/2. Et xiiii li. pur quirs tannés de faire Barhides, & Sakes as draps.]
c. 1350. [see TANNED 1].
14[?]. Rule Syon Monast., ix. in Aungier, Syon Monast. (1840), 272. Withe hosen and schone tanned.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 486/2. Tannyn, or barkyn, frunio.
1481. Caxton, Godeffroy, clxviii. 249. There was seint peter herberowed in a tanners hows, that tanned leder.
1503–4. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 19, Preamble. No corryour … [shall] cory any hyde of Leyther but such as afore be sufficiantly tanned.
1630. Tom Thumbe, 56, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 179. His bootes and shoes a mouses skin, there tand most curiously.
1768. Boswell, Corsica, iii. (ed. 2), 195. In the island of St. Kilda they tan with the tormentil root.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 85. About three months is usually occupied in tanning calf-skins.
b. transf. To treat (fishing-nets, sails, etc.) with tanners’ ooze or some preserving substance; also, to act upon as an astringent.
1601. J. Keymor, Dutch Fishing (1664), 7. Shee [the Herring Buss] imployeth … at Land … Tanners to Tan their Nets and Sayles.
1615. [see TAN-VAT].
1889. J. M. Duncan, Clin. Lect. Dis. Wom., xii. (ed. 4), 82. The styptic may pass into the uterine veins in the broad ligament, and produce changes there—tanning the parts.
1905. Daily News, 26 July, 6. ‘Drink less tea,’ says he, ‘but, above everything, mind the infusing.’… The British interior will continue to be tanned until the sun of Albion shall set.
c. In the manufacture of artificial marble, to steep (the composition) in a hardening and preservative preparation: cf. TANNAGE 1.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
2. To make brown (the face or skin), esp. by exposure to the sun or weather; to embrown, sunburn; hence, to make dark or tawny in color.
1530. Palsgr., 752/2. I tanne in the sonne, or am sonne brente…. You shall tanne your selfe more upon the see than upon lande.
1590. I. L. Desc. Straunge Monstar, 18.
| The moisture of his mouth in ropes, hangs downe on fainting brest, | |
| His son-tand hide not free the while, but still with strokes opprest. |
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 35. His … face all tand with scorching sunny ray.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 127. The neerer they approch to the riuer Indus, the deeper coloured they are and tanned with the Sun.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 102. The people are … of a good stature, but a little tann’d.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. (1767), I. 262. Heat, whose burning Influence … tans into Soot the Ethiopian’s Complexion.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. lxix. In war well season’d, and with labours tann’d.
1853. Mrs. Gaskell, Cranford, xv. His face was deep brown, as if tanned and re-tanned by the sun.
fig. c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 17. All Egypt and Barbary, with Lybia and the Negro’s Country, are tainted and tand with this black Religion.
b. intr. (for refl.) To become sunburnt or darkened by exposure.
1530. [see 2].
1884. Illustr. Lond. News, 26 Jan., 91/2. One advantage you swarthy people have over us—you don’t tan.
1889. Nature, 24 Oct., 633/2. The capacity to tan, or become darker by exposure, varies much.
3. trans. To tan (a person’s) hide, also simply to tan (a person): to thrash soundly. slang or colloq. (Cf. HIDE v.2 2.)
c. 1670. Expost. Let. Men Buckhm., 2/2. Let not your Worships thick skin be too sensible that we thus Tan your Hide.
1731. Coffey, Devil to Pay, iv. (1733), 13. Come, and spin, you lazy Drab, or I’ll tan your Hide for you.
1835–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 120. I’ll tan your hide for you, you may depend.
1890. J. Curtin, trans. Sienkiewicz’ With Fire & Sword, xli. 475. To-day you tan people, to-morrow they tan you.
1903. Spectator, 14 Feb., 245. Midshipmen, who are boys, are ‘tanned,’ but not Lieutenants of twenty-five.
