Definition

1. Noun:

   • A dark, thick, sticky liquid: A black or dark brown viscous substance obtained by the destructive distillation of organic materials such as wood, coal, or peat. It is used for waterproofing, preserving, and paving.
   • A sailor: (Informal, often old-fashioned) A term for a sailor, especially one in the navy.

2. Verb:

   • To coat with tar: To cover or treat a surface with tar.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Substance):
  • The road crew applied fresh tar to the cracks.
  • The smell of hot tar filled the air near the construction site.
• Noun (Sailor):
  • The old tar told stories of his voyages across the Atlantic.
• Verb:
  • They plan to tar the driveway next week.
  • The wooden fence was tarred to protect it from the rain.

Advanced Usage

• "To tar someone/something with the same brush": To unfairly consider someone or something to have the same faults as another person or thing because they are part of the same group.
  • Just because one employee was dishonest, don't tar the whole team with the same brush.
• "Tar and feather": To punish or humiliate someone by covering them in tar and then feathers (historically a form of mob punishment).
  • The novel describes how the mob threatened to tar and feather the official.

Variants and Related Words

• Tarry (adj): Resembling or covered with tar.
  • The tarry residue was difficult to clean.
• Tarmac (n): A material used for surfacing roads or runways, consisting of crushed rock mixed with tar. (Note: This is a compound word, not a direct variant of 'tar' alone).
• Coal tar (n): A thick black liquid produced when coal is turned into coke or gas, used in making various chemical products.

Synonyms

• Noun (Substance): Pitch, asphalt, bitumen.
• Noun (Sailor): Seaman, mariner, salt (informal).
• Verb: Coat, cover, smear.

Related Phrasal Verbs / Constructions

• Tar over: To cover something completely with tar.
  • They tarred over the old gravel path to make it smoother.

Related Idioms

• "To be tarred with the same brush": (See Advanced Usage).
• "Tarred with the same stick": An alternative, less common form of the idiom above, with the same meaning.

Noun

1. a man who serves as a sailor
2. any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue

Verb

1. coat with tar
   • tar the roof
   • tar the roads