Tar-pau'lin, n.
n. [Written also tarpauling and tarpawling. Cf. O. Eng. pall, a sort of fine cloth, and Prov. Eng. pauling, a covering for a cart.]
Sense 1. A piece of canvas covered with tar, or a composition, to render it water-proof, used for covering the hatches of a ship, hammocks, boats, and the like.
Sense 2. A hat covered with painted or tarred cloth, worn by sailors and others. Totten.
Sense 3. Hence, a sailor.
To a landsman, these tarpaulins, as they were called, seemed, a strange and half-savage race. Macaulay.