Pa. t. and pple. tarred. Forms: 1 tięrwian, tyrwian; 3–5 terren, 4 tere; 5–7 tarre, 6–8 tarr, 6– tar. [f. OE. teoru, teorw-, TAR sb.] trans. To smear or cover with tar. Also absol.
[Beowulf, 295. Niw tyrwydne [= new-tarred] nacan on sande arum healdan.]
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2596. In an fetles of riȝesses wroȝt, Terred ðat water dered it noȝt, Ðis child wunden ȝhe wulde don.
c. 1300. Havelok, 707. Hise ship … He dede it tere, an ful wel pike.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 489/2. Terryn, wythe terre, colofoniso.
1495. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 214. Hawsers olde & feble Tarred—iij; New Hawsers nott tarred—j.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. ii. 63. Our hands … are often tarr’d ouer, with the surgery of our sheepe.
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2483/3. They had Tarr’d the Bridge, and laid Combustible Stuff in order to burn it.
1783. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 94. Tarred apple-trees to keep the millers from going up.
1840. Longf., in Life (1891), I. 361. The canker-worms have begun their journey up the trees, and to-morrow I shall tar.
1884. Act 47 & 48 Vict., c. 76 § 5. A person shall not, without due authority,… paint or tar any post office,… telegraph post, or other property.
b. To smear (a person’s body) over with tar; esp. in phr. to tar and feather, to smear with tar and then cover with feathers: a punishment sometimes inflicted by a mob (esp. in U.S.) on an unpopular or scandalous character.
(The practice was imposed by an ordinance of Richard I. in 1189 as a punishment in the navy for theft: see Rymer, Foedera (1704), I. 65/2, Hakluyt, Voy. (1599), II. 21, Holinshed, Chron. (1807) II. 213; in Howell’s Fam. Lett. (1650, I. III. xxvii. 81) it is said to have been applied in 1623 by a bishop of Halverstade to a party of incontinent friars and nuns; but in neither case is the specific term used.)
1774. J. Adams, in Fam. Lett. (1876), 12. Pote … railed away at Boston mobs, drowning ten, and tarring Malcom.
1774. T. Hutchinson, Diary, 1 July. K[ing George III.].—I see they threatened to pitch and feather you. H[utchinson].—Tarr and feather, may it please your Majesty.
1774. Burke, Amer. Tax., Wks. II. 374. You must send the ministers tarred and feathered to America.
1774. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 127/2. Mr. John Malcomb, an officer of the customs at Boston, who was tarred and feathered, and led to the gallows with a rope about his neck.
1784. Dk. Rutland, Corr. w. Pitt (1890), 37. Persons are daily marked out for the operation of tarring and feathering.
1846. Hare, Mission Comf., ii. (1876), 61. [We] tar and feather our feelings with the dust and dirt of earth.
1850. N. Hawthorne, in Bridge, Pers. Recoll. (1893), 114. If I escape from town without being tarred and feathered, I shall consider it good-luck.
c. fig. To dirty or defile as with tar; esp. in phr. tarred with the same stick (or brush), stained with the same or similar faults or obnoxious qualities. (In quot. a. 1612, ? to darken, obscure; in quot. 1622 in allusion to the protective and curative use of tar by shepherds, etc.)
a. 1612. Harington, Epigr. (1633), I. lxviii. To purge the vapours that our cleare sight tarres.
1622. Fletcher & Massinger, Span. Curate, III. ii. I have nointed ye, and tarr’d ye with my doctrine, And yet the murren sticks to ye.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxvi. They are a’ tarr’d wi’ the same stick—rank Jacobites and Papists.
1823. Cobbett, Rural Rides (1885), I. 283. ‘You are all tarred with the same brush,’ said the sensible people of Maidstone.
1827. Amer. Q. Rev., II. Dec., 365. Mr. Martin adds fine speeches and glowing sentences to the recital of some of the most revolting follies of his worthy friend: but it is as if he had tarred him, that he might feather him afterwards with gorgeous plumes.
1860. Reade, Cloister & H., xl. Now this Gerard is tarred with the same stick.
1881. W. E. Forster, in Reid, Life (1888), II. viii. 368. My replacement by some one not tarred by the coercion brush.
