Meanings
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1
noun
A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.
"I have got a very fine shirt, which I am going to use for my wedding shirt; but there are three tallow stains on it which I want washed out[.]".
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2
verb
To cause to have a large quantity of tallow; to fatten.
To tallow sheep.
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3
verb
Of animals: to develop quantities of tallow.
[…] their beef is finer than that of the old short-horned breed, and they fatten much earlier and quicker, conveying still a vast depth of natural flesh, and tallowing within in the first degree.
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4
noun
obtained from suet and used in making soap, candles and lubricants
Etymology
From Middle English talow, talgh, from Old English *tealh, *tealg, (compare Old English tælg, telg (“dye”)), from Proto-West Germanic *talg, from Proto-Germanic *talgaz (compare Dutch talg, German Talg), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to flow”) (compare Middle Irish delt (“dew”), Old Armenian տեղ (teł, “heavy rain”)).