tat
verb (used with or without object)
to do tatting, or make (knotted lace) by tatting.
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tat
1 American
[tat]
/ tæt /
verb (used with or without object)
tatted,
tatting
tat
2
American
[tat]
/ tæt /
noun
verb (used with or without object)
tatted,
tatting
TAT
3
American
abbreviation
Psychology.
tat
1
British
/ tæt /
noun
-
tatty articles or a tatty condition
-
tasteless articles
-
a tangled mass
tat
2
British
/ tæt /
verb
tat
3
British
/ tæt /
noun
tat
4
British
/ tæt /
noun
tat
Idioms
Etymology
Origin of tat1
First recorded in 1900–05; back formation from tatting
Origin of tat2
First recorded in 1980–85; shortening of tattoo 2 ( def. )
Explanation
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."
Vocabulary lists containing tat
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.
See Examples For:
Part of that healing process will involve leaning into the humor tat Dodd imbues in his delivery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
He praised Powell’s avoidance of engaging in tit for tat with the president.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
“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
The final tat disappeared and it became nothing but boom.
From "The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread" by Kate DiCamillo
“I see myself as part of a mobile army, and we travel our nation’s highways and byways and we work in conjunction with law enforcement,” Gary Smith, an ambassador with TAT said.
From Fox News ● Jun. 15, 2019
In 1974, with about $50,000, Lear and Perenchio formed a new production company, TAT, where they produced “The Jeffersons,” “One Day at a Time” and “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2017
We hope the rest of the WAC and TAT meetings are public moving forward, and we encourage Fyra Engineering to share as many relevant details as possible throughout the initial phase of the restoration process.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 15, 2017
The prospect of sending Aidan up alone with a bunch of people she’d never met before made me uneasy, but I had consulted the travel record for TAT online; it was excellent.
From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2016
Intricate webs of village and family loyalties were tested to the limit in affairs such as TAT, the collapse of a savings bank in a pyramid scheme in which some top level officials were implicated.
From After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Samuel Vaknin
In his “6:16 in LA,” Mr. Lamar mentions the pizza restaurant Lucali, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn: “My visa, passport tatted, I show up in Ibiza, Lucalis dwellings in Brooklyn just to book me some pizza.”
From New York Times ● May 6, 2024
However, I am married to a woman who loves that place so much that she wants to get the logo tatted on her thigh.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2023
They dress hip, they wear sneakers, they’re tatted and they’re more transparent, honestly, about their lives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2023
The tatted head of a ruby octopus peers though the patio fences of Reuben’s Brews in Ballard.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2021
Her arms and neck are covered in tattoos that only GDs can decipher, except for those red lips tatted on her neck.
From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas
Thousands of young women were given an education and a portable skill, their equipment — tatting shuttle, thread, needles, crochet hooks — small enough to fit in a pocket, and take to America.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 1, 2016
From the outside it's kind of amusing to think of you as a prisoner in your own home as your mother-in-law takes over the porch with her tatting and smoking.
From Slate ● May 29, 2013
Or as the milestone is better known in body-art circles, tatting 300.
From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2012
Last year has to be one of the worst episodes of senatorial tatting in history.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2012
On her left were two matrons, with massive foreheads and bonnets to match, discussing Women’s Rights and making tatting.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
