TAREAU, Fr. A screw-tap.
TARGE, Fr. See [Target]. It is generally pronounced Targue, from whence is derived the figurative expression Se targuer, to plume one’s-self, or to be self-sufficient. Le poltron se targue du courage de son père—The coward plumes himself upon the courage which his father possessed.
TARGET, a sort of shield, being originally made of leather, wrought out of the back of an ox’s hide.
Target, is also a mark for the artillery, &c. to fire at in their practice.
TARIERE, Fr. Auger, wimble, gimlet. The French make a distinction with respect to the gender of this word. When they express a large sized auger or wimble, they say, Un gros Tarière, making it masculine, and when they mean a small sized one, they say, Une petite tarière, making it feminine.
Tariere, Fr. Likewise signifies a miner’s tool with which he bores into the earth. It is used to force a lighted match into the chamber of a countermine, and to make it explode.
TARPAULINGS, are made of strong canvas, thoroughly tarred and cut into different sizes, according to their several uses in the field; such as to cover the powder-waggons and tumbrels (carrying ammunition) from rain: each field-piece has likewise one to secure the ammunition-boxes.
To be TARRED. A cant word used among soldiers to signify the punishment which privates undergo among themselves, when they have been tried and sentenced by their own comrades.
TARTARES, Fr. A word used in the French army to distinguish officers’ servants and batmen from the soldiers that serve in the ranks. Tartare likewise means a groom.
TARTARS, (Tartares, Fr.) Asiatics, whose principal arms are the bow and arrow, and sabre or pike. Some few have firelocks and pistols.