tank
noun /tæŋk/
/tæŋk/
enlarge imagea large container for holding liquid or gas- a fuel/water/storage tank
- a fish tank (= for keeping fish in)
- I filled the petrol tank before I set off on my journey.
- (North American English) the gas tank
- He uses an oxygen tank to breathe.
Extra ExamplesTopics The environmentb2, Transport by car or lorryb2, Sports: water sportsb2- Put a little fish food into the tank.
- The truck crashed into a wall and ruptured a fuel tank.
- Firefighters sometimes need to use air tanks and special breathing masks.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- empty
- full
- glass
- …
- fill
- refill
- drain
- …
- contain something
- in a/the tank
- into a/the tank
- tank of
- …
- (also tankfultank (of something) the contents of a tank or the amount it will hold/ˈtæŋkfʊl//ˈtæŋkfʊl/)
- We drove there and back on one tank of fuel.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- empty
- full
- glass
- …
- fill
- refill
- drain
- …
- contain something
- in a/the tank
- into a/the tank
- tank of
- …
- a military vehicle covered with strong metal and armed with guns. It can travel over very rough ground using wheels that move inside metal belts.
- Tanks rolled in to end the siege.
- He's six feet tall and built like a tank (= has a solid, strong body).
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- armoured/armored
- army
- battle
- …
- climb into
- get into
- drive
- …
- roll
- advance
- attack
- …
- battalion
- company
- corps
- …
- (Indian English) an artificial pool, lake or reservoir see also drunk tank
Word Originearly 17th cent.: perhaps from Gujarati tānkũ or Marathi (a language spoken in the western Indian state of Maharashtra) tānke͂ ‘underground cistern’, from Sanskrit tadāga ‘pond’, probably influenced by Portuguese tangue ‘pond’, from Latin stagnum. The military vehicle took its name from the use of tank as a secret code word during manufacture in 1915.