tart

adj
/tɑɹt/US/tɑːt/UK

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”).

  1. derived from *der- — “to flay, split, cleave
  2. derived from *teraną
  3. inherited from *tartaz — “rough, sharp, tearing
  4. inherited from *tart
  5. inherited from teart
  6. inherited from tart

Definitions

  1. Sharp to the taste

    Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.

    • I ate a very tart apple.
  2. High or too high in acidity.

  3. Sharp

    Sharp; keen; severe.

    • He gave me a very tart reply.
  4. + 8 more definitions
    1. A type of small open pie, or piece of pastry, now typically containing jelly (US) / jam…

      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).

    3. A prostitute.

    4. Any 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.
    5. To practice prostitution.

    6. To practice promiscuous sex.

    7. To dress garishly, ostentatiously, whorishly, or sluttily.

    8. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at tart. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01tart02acidity03sharpness04keenness05eagerness06tartness

A definitional loop anchored at tart. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at tart

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA