tar¹ / tär/ • n. a dark, thick, flammable liquid distilled from wood or coal, consisting of a mixture of hydrocarbons, resins, alcohols, and other compounds. It is used in roadmaking and for coating and preserving timber. ∎  a similar substance formed by burning tobacco or other material: [in comb.] low-tar cigarettes. • v. (tarred, tar·ring) [tr.] [usu. as adj.] (tarred) cover (something) with tar: a newly tarred road.PHRASES: beat (or whale) the tar out of inf. beat or thrash severely.tar and feather smear with tar and then cover with feathers as a punishment.tar people with the same brush consider specified people to have the same faults.tar² • n. inf., dated a sailor.

TAR

TAR. In the American colonies, tar was a by-product of land clearing and was both exported and supplied to local shipyards. In 1705 Parliament established bounties on naval stores, including tar, imported from the colonies. Following the passage of this law and subsequent acts, annual shipments of pitch and tar from the colonies to Great Britain increased from less than one thousand barrels to more than eighty-two thousand barrels. During the era of wooden ships, tar retained an important place in manufacturing and trade statistics, especially in North Carolina. In the twentieth century most of the tar produced was distilled to yield carbolic oil, naphtha, and other crude products, while pine wood tar was used in medicines and soap.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kilmarx, Robert A., ed. America's Maritime Legacy: A History of the U.S. Merchant Marine and Shipbuilding Industry since Colonial Times. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1979.

Shephard, James F., and Walton, Gary M. Shipping, Maritime Trade, and the Economic Development of Colonial North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.

Victor S.Clark/h. s.

See alsoNorth Carolina ; Shipbuilding .

tar tar and feather smear with tar and then cover with feathers as a punishment, a practice originally imposed by an ordinance of Richard I in 1189 as a punishment in the navy for theft. In 18th-century America in particular, the punishment was sometimes inflicted by the mob on an unpopular or scandalous character.
tar baby a difficult problem which is only aggravated by attempts to solve it, with allusion to the doll smeared with tar as a trap for Brer Rabbit, in J. C. Harris's Uncle Remus (1880).
Tar Heel State informal name for North Carolina, with allusion to tar as a principal product of that state.

See also do not spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

tar Black or dark brown, complex liquid mixture of hydrocarbon compounds, derived from wood, coal, and other organic materials. Tar, from petroleum oil, is a major source of hydrocarbons for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and plastics; cruder tar compounds, such as pitch, are used for road surfacing and protecting timber against rot and pests. Wood tar yields creosote and paraffin.

Tar ★★ 1997

Female cop Prescott and crook Thigpen were high school sweethearts who went their separate ways. But they're reunited when Thigpen hijacks a squad car that just happens to be driven by guess who. There's also a story involving a group of black nationalists who kidnap white businessman and cover them in—you guessed it—tar. Likeable leads, improbable characters. 90m/C VHS, DVD . Kevin Thigpen, Nicole Prescott, Seth Gilliam, Ron Brice, Frank Minucci; D: Goetz Grossmann; W: Goetz Grossmann; C: Lloyd Handwerker; M: John Hill.