tank town

English

Etymology

From the practice of steam locomotives stopping at small towns to take on water.

Noun

tank town (plural tank towns)

  1. A small, unimportant, place.
    Nothing ever happens in this little tank town.
    • In 1884 four masked bandits held up a Southern Pacific passenger train as it stopped at the little tank town of Panitano for water.
      2004: Thomas Penfield. Dig Here!: Lost Mines & Buried Treasure of the Southwest‎. Adventures Unlimited Press, page 143.

References
  • 2006: Eric Partridge, Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor. The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z‎. Taylor & Francis, page 1931.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.