tatty articles or a tatty condition
tasteless articles
a tangled mass
First recorded in 1900–05; back formation from tatting
First recorded in 1980–85; shortening of tattoo 2 ( def. )
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."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"There's a lot of tat people have bought and are selling at stupid prices," she said.
From BBC • Dec. 12, 2025
In this tit for tat, though, California’s threats to respond have thus far proved ineffectual.
From Slate • Aug. 19, 2025
It's a tit for tat, following fresh U.S. curbs on chip exports.
From Reuters • Oct. 20, 2023
Tit for tat is the coin of the congressional realm.
From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2023
It was those different rat, tat, tats that told the men which way to turn, how fast to march, when to load their muskets, and when to shoot.
From I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 by Lauren Tarshis
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.
