A Dictionary of Cont..

tantalize
twelve o’clock high. High is the word applied to
moral and intellectual matters (a man of high
courage). In this sense, lofty is often used as a
synonym. Lofty implies an impressive height (a
lofty room, lofty trees). By itself, in figurative
use, it is slightly disparaging, implying a cold
aloofness or an assumption of unmerited superiority
(These lofty pretensions have very little
support. She was very lofty this morning).
Tall is a more limiting term than high: it is
applied either to that whiih is high in proportion
to its breadth (I remember, I remember.. . the
fir trees, tall and high. Those are very tall
glasses) or to anything higher than the average
of its kind (A tall man with u high hat and whiskers
on his chin/ Will soon be knocking at your
door. London has few tall buildings). Tall is
used idiomatically and colloquially in America
to mean extravagant, hard-to-believe (He was
full of tall tales about his life as a commando);
high-flown or grandiloquent (That was mighty
tall talk, but you notice that little came of it).
Tall timber to describe woods with high trees, is
an American expression. So is the colloquial tall
drink, a sort of pun on highball, another American
term. Highboy, which in America describes
a tall chest of drawers supported on legs, is generally
in England a tallboy.
In its literal sense, tall seems confined by usage
to that which lives and grows. Otherwise it is
usually figurative. In general use, if one is in
doubt which word to apply, use high.
tantalize; harass; irritate. Tantalize derives from
Tantalus, a mythical Greek king who was punished
by the gods by being stood up to his chin
in water which receded as he stooped to drink,
and placed under branches of fruit which always
evaded his grasp. Thus to tantalize is to torment
with, or as with, the sight of something desired
but out of reach, to tease by arousing expectations
that are repeatedly disappointed (She knew
how to tantalize men). To be tantalized is to be
irritated, to be excited to impatience or anger,
but it is to be irritated in a particular way and
the distinction of this particularity should be
preserved. The verbs are not synonymous. Harass,
a stronger word than irritate, describes torturing
or tormenting by persistent disturbance or
cares. To harass is to tire out by disturbing, to
trouble with repeated attacks. It is often used in
a military context (German planes hnrassed the
troops on the beach at Dunkirk) or in the context
of daily work (He was harassed by the continual
demands upon his time of trivial things
that could not be dismissed but had to be dealt
with even though they prevented him from accomplishing
the important and urgent task that
had been assigned to him). Continually harass
is redundant.
tantamount. See paramount.
tap. See faucet.
taps in America is the word to describe a signal
on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at which all lights
in soldiers’ or sailors’ quarters must be extinguished
(They lay in the darkness.. . listening to
Taps weep out over the public-address system,
enormous and sorrowful over the herded shabby
acres of men who were no longer civilians and
not yet soldiers). The English term is lights out.
The signal is usually played at solemn military
funerals and the word is used, figuratively and
colloquially, to mean the end (Taps for Private
Tussie. It’ll be taps for you, brother, if the boss
catches you fooling around here in his ofice).
tardy in America today means, primarily, late or
behindhand (He was tardy to school only once
in his entire four years). In England the principal
meaning of tardy is moving or acting slowly,
slow, sluggish, dilatory (The finest timber is of
tardy growth). This sense in America is secondary
and seldom used.
target; objective. Though a target is a form of
objective, target and objective are not synonymous.
Literally target designates a device, usually
marked with concentric circles, to be aimed at in
shooting practice or contests, or any object used
for this purpose, or anything fired at (An airplane
at ten thousand feet is a very small target).
The extension of target to mean any goal or objective
to be reached-a practice in which the
English indulge even more than the Americans
-has its dangers, particularly if the objective is
one expressible in numerical terms, for no idea
of numbers is implied in the basic meaning. If,
for example, one is told that a fund drive has
gone beyond the target one is being informed
not that there has been a failure, as one would
have to suppose if one kept the metaphor in
mind, but that the drive has been more successful
than anticipated.
tarred with the same brush. As a way of saying
that someone shares, though perhaps to a lesser
degree, the faults or sins of another, is defiled in
the same way, tarred with the same brush is
trite and worn.
The origin of the expression is disputed. Some
think it has to do with tarring and feathering,
once a legal punishment. Others connect it with
the tarring of sheep, for identification and protection
against ticks. In early American usage
the phrase (along with a touch of the tar brush)
was used to mean that the person spoken of had
some Negro blood.
tart. See pie.
Tartar; Tatar. Tatar, the original term, is now
used chiefly in an ethnological sense. The Tatar
Republic is an autonomous republic in the Eastern
Soviet Union in Europe, with a capital at
Kazan.
Tartar (formed on Tatar by association with
Tartarus, Hell, because to the Christians of Eurooe
the Tatars seemed like fiends from Hell) is
nb;r usually the term to describe a member’ of
any of a mingled host of Mongolian, Turkish,
and other tribes who, under the leadership of
Genghis Khan, overran Eastern Europe during
the Middle Ages. It is also applied to a member
of the descendants of this people, variously intermingled
with other races and tribes, now inhabiting
parts of the European and west and central
Asiatic Soviet Union. Tartar may also describe
any of several Turkic languages of west central