tart1
- sharp to the taste; sour or acid: Tart apples are best for pie.
- sharp in character, spirit, or expression; cutting; biting: a tart remark.
Origin of tart1
tart2
- a small pie filled with cooked fruit or other sweetened preparation, usually having no top crust.
- a covered pie containing fruit or the like.
- Slang. a prostitute or promiscuous woman.
- tart up, Slang. to adorn, dress, or decorate, especially in a flamboyant manner: The old restaurant was tarted up to look like a Viennese café.
Origin of tart2
Related Words
dryshortastringentcuttingcausticsharpacidwoundingbunrollDanishpieeclairpopoverturnoveracerbicacidulousacrimoniousbarbedbitingExamples from the Web for tart
Contemporary Examples
She is routinely dismissed by Madrid wits as “a Danish tart.”
It was a candy-colored teen comedy that cut the usual sugar-sweetness with tart dialogue and sharp writing.
They taste of red and black berries, currants, cranberries, strawberries, mulberries and cherries, tart and sweet.
Bake for 15 minutes, remove the tart shell, and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F (163°C).
But why do they have to tart up what used to be classy red carpet events or football extravaganzas?
Historical Examples
Some tart messages and answers were exchanged on this occasion.
To be sent up with the cheese, or, if you like, with the tart.
The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory;Charlotte Campbell Bury
And should we bid him bring us yet another course, I trow his answer will be tart!
A Tangled TaleLewis Carroll
He changed his meat plate now, and helped him lavishly to tart.
Dreamers of the GhettoI. Zangwill
As for her tart retorts, terrifying to bores and toadies, they only amused him.
William Pitt and the Great WarJohn Holland Rose
tart1
- a pastry case often having no top crust, with a sweet or savoury filling
Word Origin
tart2
- (of a flavour, food, etc) sour, acid, or astringent
- cutting, sharp, or caustica tart remark
Word Origin
tart3
- informal a promiscuous woman, esp a prostitute: often a term of abuseSee also tart up
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for tart
adj.
"having a sharp taste," late 14c., perhaps from Old English teart "painful, sharp, severe" (in reference to punishment, pain, suffering), of unknown origin; possibly related to the root of teran "to tear." Figurative use, with reference to words, speech, etc., is attested from c.1600.
n.1
"small pie," c.1400, from Old French tarte "flat, open-topped pastry" (13c.), possibly an alteration of torte, from Late Latin torta "round loaf of bread" (in Medieval Latin "a cake, tart"), infl. in Middle English by tart (adj.).
n.2
"prostitute," 1887, from earlier use as a term of endearment to a girl or woman (1864), sometimes said to be a shortening of sweetheart. But another theory traces it to jam-tart (see tart (n.1)), which was British slang early 19c. for "attractive woman." To tart (something) up is from 1938.