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• vat
  vat

  noun

  a large container, as a tub or tank, used for storing or holding liquids.
• VAT
  VAT

  noun

  value-added tax.
• Vat.
  Vat.

  abbreviation

  Vatican.

vat

¹ American  

[vat] / væt /

noun

• vats
  plural

1. a large container, as a tub or tank, used for storing or holding liquids.

   a wine vat.

2. Chemistry.

   1. a preparation containing an insoluble dye converted by reduction into a soluble leuco base.

   2. a vessel containing such a preparation.

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verb (used with object)

vatted, vatting

1. to put into or treat in a vat.

VAT ² American  

noun

1. value-added tax.

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Vat. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Vatican.

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vat ¹ British  

/ væt /

noun

1. a large container for holding or storing liquids

2. chem a preparation of reduced vat dye

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verb

1. (tr) to place, store, or treat in a vat

Vat. ² British  

abbreviation

1. Vatican

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VAT ³ British  

/ væt /

abbreviation

1. value-added tax: a tax levied on the difference between the cost of materials and the selling price of a commodity or service

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unvatted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• vats
  plural

Etymology

Origin of vat

before 1100; Middle English (south); Old English fæt vessel; cognate with Old Norse fat vessel, German Fass keg

Explanation

A vat is a big container for holding liquids. If you're having a big party, your mom may get you to help cook a vat of spaghetti sauce to feed all your hungry relatives. Remember that vat has a short a sound; it rhymes with cat, hat, and sat. Vats are not always food-related. People who make pottery, for example, keep vats of glazes in which they dip their vases and cups in order to color them. No matter what a vat contains, it's often heavy and hard to move.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vat VAT Vat. vats vatted vatting

Upon arriving at the scene, officials determined that methyl methacrylate, a volatile liquid used to make plastic, was leaking out of a 34,000-gallon vat.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

Behind the glass of a sterile room, two employees in full protective suits could be seen extracting an insulin component from a large vat to send a test sample to a customer.

From Barron's ● Apr. 5, 2026

The justices don’t care what you’re doing out there on the plaza; they are just brains in a vat.

From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2026

Since then, Zhan's body has been stored in a 2,000-litre container at the institute in a vat of -190C liquid nitrogen.

From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025

Apparently, if they did not get the cane into the boiling vat within forty-eight hours—preferably twenty-four hours—their crop would be ruined.

From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson

White says he would like to see politicians cut VAT for hospitality as they did during the Covid pandemic when it was reduced to 5%.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

Like other installers, Mendoza's wish list also includes an end to VAT taxes that are inflating costs for a public he says no longer needs convincing.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

Burnham has also announced a host of new cost-of-living policies since taking office earlier this month, including scrapping of VAT from domestic electricity bills.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

A Michelin-starred chef has called on the government to cut VAT for the restaurant industry.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

To this extent the Faroe government is expected to   continue its tough policies, including introducing a 20% VAT in 1993, and   has agreed to an IMF economic-political stabilization plan.

From The 1993 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

Vat. ix, and the name of the scribe George occurs in both, but the readings do not agree.

From A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener

Behind him, a largely automated line of chemical vats is off limits to cameras because the process is patented by a Canadian company, Excir.

From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026

“Like finding out that people were literally trying to smuggle giant vats of ranch,” said Stacy Stokes, the brand’s vice president of marketing and sales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

Giant, stainless-steel mixing tanks and vats, on their sides, tanning in the Florida sun.

From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026

After growing its proprietary enzymes in a yeast media, Samsara Eco passes plastics over them in stainless-steel vats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026

Caggo Corpsekiller was pacing by the wine vats, his black arakh hanging at his hip.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

These whiskies, which used to be called vatted malts, can be wonderful and complex.

From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2018

Michael was right about that port; there’s old and vatted for you!

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 7 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson

We sat down, a considerable company, to dinner, most of us fine old vatted English tories of that class which is often so enthusiastic as to be inarticulate.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson

If you don’t want to taste what you eat, you let ’em hand you a free bottle of pure California claret, vatted on East Houston-st.

From Odd Numbers Being Further Chronicles of Shorty McCabe by Sewell Ford

I sat by the doors that were slatted      And the stuff had a surf like the sea— No vintage was anywhere vatted      Too strong for ventripotent me!

From In the Sweet Dry and Dry by Bart Haley

Here the moon by night is distilling and vatting mountain dew from which all wild creatures may drink deep without fear of deleterious effects.

From Old Plymouth Trails by Winthrop Packard

"Here, vatting," he said, "every thing is in it, the certificate of birth, the enlistment paper, the discharge, and the other thing."

From Napoleon and Blucher by L. (Luise) Mühlbach