tar baby
nounEtymology
Referring to a doll made of tar and turpentine to entrap Br'er Rabbit in one of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, published in 1881, from earlier African American folklore, from earlier African (e.g. Kongo) folklore, influenced in America by similar stories from various unrelated Native American tribes, such as the Cherokee, Alabama, Koasati, and Apache. (Similar stories are found throughout the world, e.g. among the Mixtec and Zapotec.)
Definitions
A difficult, abstract problem that worsens as one attempts to handle it
A difficult, abstract problem that worsens as one attempts to handle it; a sticky situation, especially one where attempts to make it better only make it worse.
- If Dees had indicated any willingness to personally pursue the case, Ed would've immediately had him appointed as a special prosecutor and turned this tar baby of a case over to him on the spot.
A black person.
The neighborhood
- neighbortarpit
- neighbortar pit
- neighborblack hole
- neighborglue trap
- neighborhot mess
- neighborhot potato
- neighborhydra
- neighborquagmire
- neighborquicksand
- neighborsticky wicket
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for tar baby. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA