tanker

noun

1. A tankship, a vessel used to transport large quantities of fluid.

   “The channel at Chan-chiang is being dredged to a depth of 50 feet enabling tankers of 70,000 tons to call.”

2. (UK, US)A motor truck (lorry) with a tank to hold bulk liquid (with or without internal baffles): a fuel tanker (lorry), petrol tanker, road tanker.

   “Nor is the government facing a strike by tanker drivers, as was the case in early 1979 during the winter of discontent.”

3. (usually)An aircraft carrying a large supply of jet fuel or avgas for aerial refueling of other aircraft, plus equipment allowing the in-air transfer of fuel.

   “Without the KC-46 tankers orbiting in friendly airspace, our fighters would've run out of fuel long before reaching the combat zone.”

4. An aircraft built or modified to carry water and/or fire retardant for dropping on wildfires.

   “While our ground teams cut firebreaks in the brush, the tankers kept the fire in the mountains at bay with frequent drops of water and retardant.”

5. A tank car (tank wagon).
6. Member of a tank crew, or of an armoured unit.

   “On February 19, 1943, American tankers felt the full wrath of the German Army in North Africa when its tank-led spearhead punched a 2-mile-wide hole through American lines at Faid Pass in Tunisia, […]”

7. An airman who serves on the crew of an aerial refueling tanker aircraft.
8. (slang)A longboard.

   “I swung the tanker around just in time to take off with the lip.”

verb

1. (transitive)To transport (oil, etc.) in a tanker.
2. To carry more fuel than necessary for a flight, in order to avoid having to refuel at a destination where fuel is more expensive or in short supply.