tart1
/tɑːt
/noun
An open pastry case containing a sweet or savoury filling: an apple tart...
- There are bagels and muffins, chocolate chip cookies, eclairs, tarts, Danish pastries, baklavas and quiches.
- There were also single-crusted tarts with similar fillings and tarts of apples and other fruits.
- We had roast potatoes and cauliflower and then something like apple tart with custard for afters.
Synonyms
pastry, flan, tartlet, quiche, strudel;
pie, patty, pasty
Derivatives
tartlet
- I'll often use salad to accompany the star item, like a tartlet or a bruschetta or a mousse or a slice of terrine or what-have-you, but it is rarely a salad in its own right.
- For an elegant light meal, I line crisp pastry tartlets with smoked salmon, fill them with warm scrambled eggs and top with a little caviar.
- To one side of the plate, place a fig tartlet with a quenelle of rosemary creme fraiche on top.
Origin
Late Middle English (denoting a savoury pie): from Old French tarte or medieval Latin tarta, of unknown origin.
Today a tart is likely to be filled with jam or fruit, but in medieval times it was a savoury pie. In mid 19th-century slang it was an affectionate word for a woman (perhaps as an abbreviation of sweetheart), but by the end of the century it was being applied disparagingly to a prostitute or promiscuous woman. Tart up, ‘to dress up ostentatiously’, came from this use in the 1930s. Tart meaning ‘sharp to the taste’, also found in medieval English, is a different word. It goes back to Old English and originally meant ‘harsh, severe’, especially in reference to punishment.
Rhymes
tart2
/tɑːt/informal, chiefly British
noun derogatory
1A woman who dresses or behaves in a way that is considered tasteless and sexually provocative: she wears skirts this short all the time—she’s such a tart...
- Men and women call women in short skirts and lots of make-up 'tarts' and everyone knows it.
- My favourite moment had to be his declaration in the diary room that the British public had done well to evict a Page 3 tart, rather than a leading left-wing anti-war crusader like him.
- What mathematical model could account for the happily married successful man risking marriage and career for a meaningless drunken grope with the office tart at the Christmas party?
1.1 dated A prostitute: the tarts were touting for trade...
- I started to peel off my wetsuit jacket; feeling now a little bit like a tart in a French brothel on a busy Bastille Day.
- Maybe you will read this and think she was a tart, but please do not judge someone you don't know.
- It's an exaggeration to say that Boswell and his contemporaries would start the day with a tuppeny tart, get blotto at lunchtime and join in a riot on the way home but not much of an exaggeration.
verb
1 [with object] (tart oneself up) Dress or make oneself up in order to look attractive: she came back only to tart herself up for the next evening...
- After sleeping late, Wade and I tarted ourselves up and walked a few minutes down Cheltenham Beach to North Head where Byron and Briar were to be married.
- Knackered already, one tarted oneself up and headed off to Blackheath to meet Chris and his girlfriend.
- So I went and tarted myself up on Tuesday and got a new passport picture done.
Synonyms
dress oneself up, make oneself up, smarten oneself up, preen oneself, beautify oneself, groom oneself
informal doll oneself up, titivate oneself
1.1 (tart something up) Improve the appearance of something, typically in a way regarded as flashy or superficial: the page layouts have been tarted up with cartoons she tarted up the buckle with some sequins...
- An uncrossing is just an uncrossing, whether you want to tart it up in cool post modern chaos lingo is pretty meaningless.
- In Stage 5, I take this tremendously sentimental display of family history and tart it up with lots of spaceships and cartoon characters.
- We can only keep tarting them up so many times before they become life-expired and we need a new train.
Synonyms
decorate, renovate, refurbish, redecorate, retouch, modernize;
smarten up
informal do up, do over, fix up, give something a facelift
2 [with object] (tart about (or around)) (Especially of a girl or woman) behave in a provocative or flamboyant way: she tarted around the room in one of Georgie’s dresses...
- I tend to like people who have energy and like to tart around a bit.
- Fed and watered, we set off again, after a bit of tarting around in the car park.
- Until recently, she was tarting around with the sleazy rapper.
Origin
Mid 19th century: probably an abbreviation of sweetheart.
tart3
/tɑːt/adjective
1Sharp or acid in taste: a tart apple...
- This compound has a fruity flavour which, when added to the tart taste of acetic acid, gives the complex character to a good wine vinegar.
- And the tangy apple flavour found in most Chardonnays comes primarily from malic acid, the tart acid found in apples.
- Boyle went on to characterize acids, noting their sour or tart taste and their ability to corrode metals.
Synonyms
sour, sharp, sharp-tasting, tangy, bitter, acid, acidic, zesty, piquant, pungent, strong, harsh, unsweetened, vinegary, lemony, citrus, burning, acrid, acetic
rare acidulous, acetous
1.1(Of a remark or tone of voice) cutting, bitter, or sarcastic: a tart reply...
- He has tart remarks concerning the latest Anglican commotions.
- He looked incredulous, unoffended by her tart tone.
- She was old enough to be Bahzell's mother, and her tart tone was so like his old nurse's that he grinned despite his tension.
Synonyms
acerbic, sharp, biting, cutting, keen, stinging, mordant, astringent, caustic, trenchant, incisive, pointed, piercing, bitter, barbed, scathing, sarcastic, sardonic, acrimonious, nasty, rude, vicious, spiteful, venomous, wounding
Derivatives
tartly
/ adverb ...- ‘I didn't have any leftover time,’ she recalled tartly, ‘for high jinks.’
- It's just a short squib of a post, but tartly phrased.
- It is, as a Hentoff book title tartly puts it, ‘freedom of speech for me - but not for thee.’
tartness
/ noun ...- Influences from abroad abound, with tastes such as pomegranate molasses adding a wonderfully sweet tartness to all sorts of salads, especially those featuring game, poultry, tangy cheese or grilled vegetables.
- This produces layer upon layer of complexity, going from sweetness to tartness in a single sip that will tantalize the taste buds.
- Undeniably sweet with a bit of tartness, it comes across as a bite of a granny smith apple, a not unpleasant taste.
Origin
Old English teart 'harsh, severe', of unknown origin.