tart

adjectivenounnounverbcommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//tɑːt//
United States//tɑɹt//

Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.

adjective

1
Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.
I ate a very tart apple.
2
High or too high in acidity.
3
figurativeSharp; keen; severe.
He gave me a very tart reply.
[French president Emmanuel] Macron fired back [at US president Donald Trump] on Thursday with his own tart riposte, telling journalists, “This is not a show. We are talking about war and peace. ... When you want to be serious,” he continued, “you don’t say every day the opposite of what you said the day before.”

Etymology

From Middle English tart, from Old English teart (“sharp, rough, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *tart, from Proto-Germanic *tartaz (“rough, sharp, tearing”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to flay, split, cleave”). Related to Scots tairt (“tart; tartness”), Dutch tarten (“to defy, challenge, mock”), German trotzen (“to defy, brave, mock”), perhaps Albanian thartë (“sour, acid, sharp”).

noun

1
A type of small open pie, or piece of pastry, now typically containing jelly (US) / jam (UK) or conserve, or sometimes other fillings (chocolate, custard, egg, butter, historically even meat or other savory fillings).
2
A melt (block of wax for use in a tart burner).

Etymology

From Middle English tart, tarte, from Old French tarte, tartre (“flat pastry”) (compare Medieval Latin tarta), of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of Old French torte, tourte, from Latin turta, perhaps from tŏrta f (“twisted”), in which case it would be cognate to torta.

noun

1
slangA prostitute.
2
slangAny woman with loose sexual morals.
We know the majority of the places that these tarts will hang out at.
In the garden I was playing the tart / I kissed your lips and broke your heart
The NYU [New York University] tarts and the club slime, the art holes and the once-a-week bridge-and-tunnel leatherettes, the spikes and the usual dregs and walking garbage, Eel was giving them all the hiss.
She told the Sun: "I'm talked about as an 'easy girl', the 'blonde slut' who distracted the captain and caused the crash. It's so wrong. I'm not some little tart."

Etymology

From a rebracketing of sweetheart, or from jam tart (“attractive woman”) by shortening.

verb

1
To practice prostitution.
2
To practice promiscuous sex.
3
To dress garishly, ostentatiously, whorishly, or sluttily.

Forms

plural: tarts
comparative: tarter
superlative: tartest
past tense: tarted
past participle: tarted
present participle: tarting
third person singular: tarts

taro · Colocasia esculenta, raised as a food primarily for its corm,…Taro · A river and valley in Italy.tarp · To cover something with a tarpaulin.

tart · Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.

Tart · A surname.Tarzan · A heroic fictional character, raised from a baby to adulthood…taser · A Taser, a handheld device made by Taser International…

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