Question: Where did the phrase "in the tank" come from?

[Bicoastal]

I hear it used all the time, but only recently realized it has no literal meaning.

Does it refer to Standard Oil? ("The Tiger's in the Tank!") Mike Dukakis's infamous campaign photo? An aquarium? What?

Can anyone help out with this?

[alfredo]

1. There's the drunk tank where the throw you until you sober up. Drunk

is another definition.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Hence presumably

UK slang - tanked eguals drunk.

[alfredo]

12. It's the same here in the US, but it can also be applied to poor performance.

My stock portfolio has tanked.

[boobooday]

2. Slate did a piece on this

Aquatics by way of pugilism. In the 19th century, Americans called swimming pools "tanks" and thus "go into the tank" was synonymous with "to dive." As far back as the 1920s, the phrase go into the tank became associated with intentionally losing a boxing match by diving onto the canvas and pretending you've been knocked out—a sense perfectly illustrated by this sentence from a 1928 New York Times article: "Pansy came out of jail and his manager, thinking him 'all washed up,' signed him up to 'take a dive,' or, more technically, 'to go into the tank' for a bird named Sailor Gray."

http://www.slate.com/id/2203028/

[dipsydoodle]

4. makes sense and is certainly plausible

.

[trof]

8. Also 'take a dive'.

"OK, Solly. Youse take a dive in round 4."

[dipsydoodle]

3. it's just slang

so the answer will differ across diffent countries as invariably happens with slang. For example fag has a completely different connotation between the UK where it's just slang for a cigarette and the USA where its use seems to differ somewhat.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Fag is short for faggot, and goes back to the witch-burning times.

When they were burning a witch, if they had a few captive homosexuals handy they just added them to the fire "like faggots."

[dipsydoodle]

6. I think you made some of that up...lol.

Over here, UK, most common use of faggots is either for kindling or a sort of sausage ball which used to be sold in fish & chips shops - maybe still is upcountry. They're a bit like Swedish meat balls and doubtless make you fart just as much. :rofl:
See here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(slang)

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Yes, faggot=kindling.

That's the usage I was talking about.

[dipsydoodle]

10. I guess that must been have the origin

of slang for cigarettes - lighted stick :shrug:

[Karenina]

9. Silly boys, a faggot is a BASSOON!!!

:silly:

[sharesunited]

13. Tidy Bowl originated it.