tan line

noun

plural tan lines

: a line that distinguishes a suntan from a paler shade of skin and that shows where an area of skin was covered (as by clothing) when the tanning occurred

While the new swimming costume would, in all possibility, leave your body with bizarre tan lines, celebrities seem to be unperturbed by the after-effects.

—Reema Gowalla

My dad, Larry—Yogi's oldest son—recently found a tan line beneath the '63 ring he got from his dad.

—Lindsay Berra

Word History

First Known Use

1944, in the meaning defined above