tank

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tank/taŋk/

▶noun

• 1 a large receptacle or storage chamber, especially for liquid or gas.

  ■ the container holding the fuel supply in a motor vehicle.

  ■ Indian & Austral./NZ a reservoir.

• 2 a receptacle with transparent sides in which to keep fish; an aquarium.

• 3 a heavy armoured fighting vehicle carrying guns and moving on a continuous articulated metal track.

• 4 N. Amer. informal a cell in a police station or jail.

▶verb

• 1 (be/get tanked up) informal drink heavily or become drunk.

• 2 (usu. tank up) fill the tank of a vehicle with fuel.

• 3 N. Amer. informal fail completely or disastrously.

  ■ (in sport) deliberately lose or fail to finish (a match).

– derivatives
tankful noun (pl. tankfuls),
tankless adjective.

– origin C17: perh. from Gujarati tānkũ or Marathi tānkẽ ‘underground cistern’, prob. influenced by Port. tangue ‘pond’.