noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A lake of asphalt formed when subterranean bitumen leaks to the ground surface. Such pits are important in forming fossil fuel reserves; they are also apt to trap passing animals, which become fossilized in the tar.
2. 2
   A service that purposely delays incoming connections in order to reduce the effectiveness of spamming and similar techniques.

Verb

1. 1
   To delay by means of a tarpit service. transitive

   "If an attack matches a certain pattern, the connection can be tarpitted."

Example

More examples

"If an attack matches a certain pattern, the connection can be tarpitted."

Etymology

From tar + pit.

Related phrases

Turing tarpit

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.