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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

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Etymology

Origin of vat

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

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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

The real-estate investor took off her shoes, sanitized her feet and waded into a giant vat filled to the brim with juicy grapes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

Amah said, pushing Pinmei toward a huge vat.

From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin

"Over the last 12 months we've seen a rise of up to 50p a litre, excluding VAT, and it's hard to react to that, because of how we deal with our customers," he said.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

He also asked the government to "scrap or significantly reduce employer's National Insurance for small businesses, reduce business rates, ease the VAT burden and get business energy costs down".

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

Meanwhile, the boss of supplier EDF Simone Rossi has warned the UK is "walking into a second energy crisis" and called for an extension to the VAT cut on electricity which kicks in on Thursday.

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

Party insiders say measures such as removing VAT from electricity bills are just the start of that assistance.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

XV 22, of which Zimmern has published a variant VAT.

From Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms by Stephen Langdon

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

One by one, groups of two entered the vats, crushing the grapes for about two to three minutes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

“But why should the vats be closed down?”

From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov

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

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

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

"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

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

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