tut
Americaninterjection
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(used as an exclamation of contempt, disdain, impatience, etc.)
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for shame!
noun
verb (used without object)
interjection
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tutsimple
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tutssimple
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have tuttedperfect
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has tuttedperfect
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are tuttingprogressive
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am tuttingprogressive
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is tuttingprogressive
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have been tuttingperfect progressive
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has been tuttingperfect progressive
Past
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tuttedsimple
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had tuttedperfect
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was tuttingprogressive
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were tuttingprogressive
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had been tuttingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tut
First recorded in 1520–30
Explanation
To tut is to express your feelings of irritation or displeasure. You might tut quietly at your friend's badly behaved dog. Since the 1520s, tut and tut-tut have been used as interjections to express contempt or impatience; and to make such a disapproving sound is to tut. Your substitute teacher might say, "Tut, class, I'm not happy with all the noise you're making," and your piano teacher might tut a bit when you confess that you didn't practice at all this week.
Vocabulary lists containing tut
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After the Tut treasures, the rest of the museum, whose remaining 94,000-odd objects are spread over a dozen galleries in a mixed thematic and chronological display, can feel a touch anticlimactic.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 5, 2025
I recently spent several years chronicling this rogue branch of archaeology for a new book called Dinner With King Tut.
From Slate • Jul. 7, 2025
King Tut was actually entombed with 145 schenti, a large collection of loincloths to take with him to the underworld.
From National Geographic • Jan. 9, 2024
On “Nutmeg,” the exultant opener, he’s “lamping in the throne with the King Tut hat.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2023
“Ten people today and one of them the wife of a Ministry employee! Tut, tut...even here, in the heart of the Ministry!”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
