taw1
/tɔː
/verb [with object]
Make (hide) into leather without the use of tannin, especially by soaking it in a solution of alum and salt: he was tawing a swordfish...
- These skins are both tanned and tawed, the principal tanning agent being the mimosa bark.
Derivatives
tawer
- His business centred on animal skins: he trained as a glover and whittawer (‘white tawer’, i.e. a tanner, who treats animal skins with alum or lime), which required an apprenticeship of at least seven years.
- This is the work of the tawers, using age-old techniques combined with modern technology.
- Then an organ-builder Josef Egger moved in the house and was followed by a tawer Martin Osimus in 1698.
Origin
Old English tawian 'prepare raw material for use or further processing', of Germanic origin; related to tool.
Rhymes
taw2
/tɔː/noun
1A large marble.Both players try to shoot their taws into a one-foot hole.
1.1 [mass noun] A game of marbles.In the early 1800s, children at Leavening played football, trap ball, tap and taw, shinnow and cricket....
- Marbles or taws were usually played along the gutters, much to the annoyance of parents.
1.2A line from which players throw marbles.In some games you shoot from behind a taw.
Origin
Early 18th century: of unknown origin.