tattoo
1 Americannoun
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a signal on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at night, for soldiers or sailors to go to their quarters.
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a knocking or strong pulsation.
My heart beat a tattoo on my ribs.
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British. an outdoor military pageant or display.
noun
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the act or practice of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, legends, etc., by making punctures in it and inserting pigments.
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a pattern, picture, legend, etc., so made.
verb (used with object)
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to mark (the skin) with tattoos.
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to put (tattoos) on the skin.
noun
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(formerly) a signal by drum or bugle ordering the military to return to their quarters
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a military display or pageant, usually at night
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any similar beating on a drum, etc
verb
noun
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a design made by this process
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the practice of tattooing
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tattoo1
First recorded in 1570–80; earlier taptoo, from Dutch taptoe, literally, “shut tap,” from tap “spigot, tap” + toe “closed, shut”; cognate with tap 2 ( def. ), to ( def. )
Origin of tattoo2
First recorded in 1760–70; from Marquesan tatu; replacing tattow, from Tahitian tatau
Explanation
A tattoo is a permanent design made on skin with a needle and ink. If you want a butterfly tattoo but you're scared of needles, you might settle for a temporary version. The word tattoo is also a verb meaning stain the skin using needles and ink. It's probably a good idea to wait until you've been dating someone for more than a week before you tattoo their name on your arm. In music, a tattoo is continuous drumming, and a military tattoo is a drum or bugle that signals soldiers to return to their quarters at the end of the day.
Vocabulary lists containing tattoo
"The Tell-Tale Heart," Vocabulary from the short story
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 1
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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.
That tattoo and the social media posts -- which Platner explains respectively as the result of a misguided outing during his Marines days and dark post-combat rants -- highlighted the risk of running untested candidates.
From Barron's • May 3, 2026
A pig has a back tattoo reading “Go pig or go home.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026
Platner’s tattoo, then, is a particularly charged showdown between vectors of progressivism headed in opposite directions—the old world and the new.
From Slate • Apr. 13, 2026
The designer now has a tattoo that reads 1878 - the year Everton was founded.
From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026
She pointed to her own cheeks, mirroring where his tattoo spread.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
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.
