tart
/tɑɹt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.37 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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).
noun
A melt (block of wax for use in a tart burner).
verb
To practice prostitution.
Example Sentences
- "I ate a very tart apple."
- "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.”"
- "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."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tɑɹt/
- British English: /tɑːt/
Usage
- British usage
- Slang
- Derogatory
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.