tarpaulin

English

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Tarpaulin

Wikipedia

Etymology

From tar + pall (“heavy canvas”) + -ing.

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -ɔːlɪn

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Noun

tarpaulin (plural tarpaulins)

(countable) A heavy, waterproof sheet of material, often cloth, used as a cover.
Throw a tarpaulin over that woodpile before it gets wet.
(countable, slang, archaic) A sailor. Often abbreviated to just tar.
(uncountable, obsolete) Any heavy, waterproof material used as a cover.
(uncountable, nautical, obsolete) Canvas waterproofed with tar, used as a cover.
A hat made of, or covered with, painted or tarred cloth, worn by sailors and others.

Usage notes

In the US, tarp is more commonly used than tarpaulin, even in print.

Derived terms

tarp

Translations

heavy, waterproof sheet of material

Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
Chinese:
Mandarin: 油布 (cmn) (yóubù), 防水布 (cmn) (fángshuǐbù)
Dutch: (Flemish, dialectical) bâche (nl) f
Finnish: suojapeite, pressu
French: bâche (fr) f
Georgian: please add this translation if you can
German: Persenning (de) f
Greek: μουσαμάς (el) (mousamás) m

Italian: ‎telone impermeabile m, tela cerata (it) f
Japanese: タープ (ja) (tāpu)
Norwegian: presenning (no) m
Polish: brezent (pl) m
Romanian: please add this translation if you can
Russian: брезент (ru) (brezént) m
Swedish: presenning (sv) c
Turkish: please add this translation if you can

sailor

Dutch: matroos (nl) m
Finnish: merimies (fi)

Swedish: sjöman (sv) c

any heavy, waterproof material used as a cover

Dutch: (Flemish, dialectical) bâche (nl) f
French: bâche (fr) f

Norwegian: presenning (no) m
Russian: тент (ru) (tɛnt) m

canvas waterproofed with tar, used as a cover

French: bâche (fr) f

Swedish: presenning (sv) c

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