tarpaulin

From tar + pall (“heavy canvas”) + -ing. The sailor sense reflects that sailors of centuries past often wore garments made of tarred cloth (for weatherproofing).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɑˈpɔː.lɪn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑːɹpəlɪn/, /tɑɹˈpɔ.lɪn/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːlɪn

tarpaulin (countable and uncountable, plural tarpaulins)

2. (countable) A heavy, waterproof sheet of material, often cloth or plastic sheet, used as a cover or blanket (often as weatherproofing, or to keep loose cargo from blowing off a lorry).

   Alternative form: tarp (a clipping that has displaced the longer form to some extent)

   Coordinate terms: dropcloth, shroud

   Throw a tarpaulin over that woodpile before it gets wet.

   • 1946, C. S. Forester, chapter 4, in Lord Hornblower, Boston: Little, Brown, and Co.:

     There were sailors asleep in the fantastic fashion of the British tarpaulin — snoring heavily as they lay on the bare deck, despite the din about them.

4. (uncountable, nautical, archaic) Canvas waterproofed with tar, used as a cover.

   Hypernyms: canvas < cloth, fabric, textile, material (fabric sense) < material (matter sense), matter, stuff

   Coordinate terms: waxed cotton, cotton wax, pilot cloth, duckcloth, waxcloth, oilcloth, nettlecloth

6. (archaic) A hat made of, or covered with, painted or tarred cloth, worn by sailors and others.

   Hypernyms: hat < garment

   Near-synonym: rain hat

8. (countable, slang, archaic) A sailor.

   Synonym: tar

tarpaulin (third-person singular simple present tarpaulins, present participle tarpaulining, simple past and past participle tarpaulined)

1. To cover with a tarpaulin.
   • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed‎^[1]:

     "Cover it up! Don't touch it!" said the Professor. So we tarpaulined it according to his instructions, and there it lies.

• In the US, tarp has been more common than tarpaulin in print since about 1990.^[1] In speech since at least 1970.

• tarp
• paulin

• tarpaulin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• unpartial