tarbrush

[ tahr-bruhsh ]

noun

1. a brush for applying tar.
2. Older Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. Black or Asian ancestry.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tarbrush¹

First recorded in 1705–15; tar ¹ + brush ¹

Example Sentences

I imagine there’s plenty of spiteful, behind-the-scenes chatter about whether this “touch of the tarbrush” will taint Meghan and Harry’s offspring.

From The Guardian

On either side of the divide between Euro and native, historians stand ready with tarbrush and gold leaf, and instead of the wicked old stereotypes, we have a whole outfit of equally misleading new ones.

From Time Magazine Archive

In this way, reports Potter, Cogg-Willoughby was able to suggest that De Sint probably had a "touch of the tarbrush in his ancestry."

From Time Magazine Archive

Posed before Neil Kingsblood is the agonizing moral question: must I admit "my touch of the tarbrush" when I know what misery this admission will create for my wife and child?

From Time Magazine Archive

One day during this summer the groom cleaned and dressed me with such extraordinary care that I thought some new change must be at hand; he trimmed my fetlocks and legs, passed the tarbrush over my hoofs, and even parted my forelock.

From Project Gutenberg