pine tar

noun

: tar obtained by destructive distillation of pinewood and used especially in roofing and soaps and in the treatment of skin diseases

Examples of pine tar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That bat now resides in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but one owned by Thornhill has what the collector believes to be the grooves of the Kansas City Royals player’s fingers preserved in pine tar on the grip. —Christina Binkley, Robb Report, 30 July 2023

Tim McClelland took a home run away from the Royals’ batting star George Brett, after the Yankees protested that his bat was smeared with an impermissible amount of pine tar, a substance used to help a batter’s grip, Perry popped out of the Royals’ dugout. —Richard Goldstein, New York Times, 1 Dec. 2022

Now my whole pants had pine tar on it. —Bobby Nightengale, The Enquirer, 20 July 2021

As far as foreign substances go, Spider Tack is like pine tar on steroids. —Andrew Beaton, WSJ, 11 June 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

pine tar

noun

: tar obtained from pinewood and used especially in roofing and soaps and in the treatment of skin diseases

Medical Definition

pine tar

noun

: tar obtained from the wood of pine trees (genus Pinus and especially P. palustris) and used in soaps and in the treatment of skin diseases