touch of the tar brush

Believed to be of British origin.

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touch of the tar brush (plural touches of the tar brush)

1. (informal) Real or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry in a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry; mixed racial heritage (e.g. Afro-Caribbean or, to a lesser extent, South Asian in background or appearance).

   Synonym: lick of the tarbrush

   • 1936, Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia, page 30:

     She was quite young—not more than about twenty-five—and sort of dark and slinky-looking, if you know what I mean. Quite nice-looking in a kind of way, but rather as though she might have what my mother used to call "a touch of the tar-brush."

• Not generally used for people that are unambiguously and distinctly of mixed race.