tankie /ˈtæŋ.ki/noun 4adjective 1forms 1 noun4 •(slang) A supporter of policies and actions by the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, or other authoritarian socialist governments.As far as the Sparklies were concerned the new comics were scruffy herberts who shouted ‘Fuck Thatcher’ over and over, while raving Tankie Stalinists hooted indiscriminately in the front row. — 2009 •(UK, slang) A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who supported the Soviet Union's policy of crushing revolts in Hungary in the 1950s and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by sending tanks into those countries.[W]e also desired to shock the staid older party members and the tankies. The tankies and softliners differed as to what sort of magazine Challenge should be. — 1985 •(slang) A soldier from a tank regiment.Breakfast was taken alongside a curious tank without a turret. When I asked about it a tankie sergeant said, 'It's a Kangaroo: that's a Sherman without a turret. The Canadians make them.[…]' — 2006 •(slang) A tank engine.The "tankies", as they were known, shunted empty carriages from Copley Hill sidings onto the buffers at Leeds […] — 1987 adjective1 •(slang, disapproving) Supporting the policies of the Soviet Union or other Marxist-Leninist governments. formstankies
