tanks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of tank.

   The refinery stores fuel in several massive underground tanks.

   Enemy tanks rolled across the border just before dawn.

   Note

   A regular plural, made with a plain -s. It serves every meaning of the noun alike: closed containers for gas, open pools of water, fuel reservoirs, armored fighting vehicles. The same spelling is also the verb's present form (the market tanks). The rest of the sentence shows which is meant: an article or a number before it signals the noun, and a subject before it signals the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of tank.

   Sales figures show the company tanks during every recession.

   His mood tanks the moment Monday morning arrives.

   Note

   Most present-tense uses describe collapse and take no object: a stock tanks, a mood tanks. The verb can also take an object, as when someone tanks fuel into a vehicle. In team games a player who tanks draws an enemy's attacks so that teammates can finish it off. Unlike the noun plural, this form always follows a singular subject as the clause's main verb.

3. 3
   interjectionhumorousIrelandpronunciation spelling

   Pronunciation spelling of thanks.

   Tanks a million for fixing my bike so quickly.

   He grinned across the counter and said, "Tanks, buddy!"

   Note

   A written joke about Irish speech: the th of thanks is respelled as a plain t, imitating the way some Irish accents stop that sound. James Joyce plays with it in Ulysses (1922): "Tanks awfully muchly," where the grammar is mangled along with the sound. It belongs to humorous writing and affectionate imitation. Used in earnest, it can come across as mockery.

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