tatty articles or a tatty condition
tasteless articles
a tangled mass
First recorded in 1900–05; back formation from tatting
First recorded in 1980–85; shortening of tattoo 2 ( def. )
To tat is to make lace. Tatting involves making loops and tying knots in a long piece of thread over and over again. Most of the lace made today is created with a machine, and the ability to tat, or make lace by hand, is rare. Tatting requires a lot of silk or cotton thread and either a metal disc called a "shuttle," needles, or a crochet hook. You may also find tat used as a noun to mean "cheap, tasteless stuff," or informally to mean "tattoo," as in "Hey, I love the new tat on your shoulder."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The concern for the public and for representative democracy is that you’re going to have a lot of tit for tat moving forward,” Skelley told Salon.
From Salon • Sep. 12, 2025
In this tit for tat, though, California’s threats to respond have thus far proved ineffectual.
From Slate • Aug. 19, 2025
Whatever the specifics of this latest tit for tat, there is a more fundamental priority for both sides: deterrence – a more solid certainty that strikes on its own soil will not happen again.
From BBC • Apr. 19, 2024
It's a tit for tat, following fresh U.S. curbs on chip exports.
From Reuters • Oct. 20, 2023
And he never stopped hearing those British battle drums, that ghostly RAT, tat, tat, tat, tat.
From I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 by Lauren Tarshis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
