noun, plural tat·toos. a signal on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at night, for soldiers or sailors to go to their quarters.
a knocking or strong pulsation: My heart beat a tattoo on my ribs.
British an outdoor military pageant or display.
Origin of tattoo 1 1570–80; earlier taptoo < Dutch taptoe literally, the tap(room) is to (i.e., shut)
noun, plural tat·toos. the act or practice of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, legends, etc., by making punctures in it and inserting pigments.
a pattern, picture, legend, etc., so made.
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verb (used with object), tat·tooed, tat·too·ing. to mark (the skin) with tattoos.
to put (tattoos) on the skin.
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Origin of tattoo 2 1760–70; < Marquesan tatu; replacing tattow < Tahitian tatau
Related forms tat·too·er , tat·too·ist , noun un·tat·tooed , adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for tattoo Contemporary Examples of tattoo The findings revealed that, in 1999, only 21 percent of Americans claimed someone in their household had a tattoo .
There was one guy who had a tattoo of me on his inner thigh.
Kastigar still had the tattoo , but he had grown a beard and lost a front tooth.
Because that tattoo ink might be more permanent than your love.
The best way to pay tribute to the surrealist artist: get a tattoo of his work.
Historical Examples of tattoo This discoloration was of a livid blue, about the tint of a tattoo mark.
Parker found him no boxer, and beat a tattoo upon his middle.
Felicite, enraged, was beating a tattoo on the shutter with her impatient fingers.
Young Allison was staring at tattoo marks on the right arm of the body.
She'd come on pass from Pindi, an' the Colonel's lady had lint her the tattoo .
British Dictionary definitions for tattoo noun plural -toos (formerly) a signal by drum or bugle ordering the military to return to their quarters
a military display or pageant, usually at night
any similar beating on a drum, etc
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Word Origin for tattoo C17: from Dutch taptoe, from the command tap toe! turn off the taps! from tap tap of a barrel + toe to shut
verb -toos , -tooing or -tooed to make (pictures or designs) on (the skin) by pricking and staining with indelible colours
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noun plural -toos a design made by this process
the practice of tattooing
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Derived Forms tattooer or tattooist , noun Word Origin for tattoo C18: from Tahitian tatau
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for tattoo n.1 "signal," 1680s, "signal calling soldiers or sailors to quarters at night," earlier tap-to (1644, in order of Col. Hutchinson to garrison of Nottingham), from Dutch taptoe , from tap "faucet of a cask" (see tap (n.1)) + toe "shut." So called because police used to visit taverns in the evening to shut off the taps of casks. Transferred sense of "drumbeat" is recorded from 1755. Hence, Devil's tattoo "action of idly drumming fingers in irritation or impatience" (1803).
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n.2 "pigment design in skin," 1769 (noun and verb, both first attested in writing of Capt. Cook), from a Polynesian noun (e.g. Tahitian and Samoan tatau , Marquesan tatu "puncture, mark made on skin").
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v. "mark the skin with pigment," 1769; see tattoo (n.2). Related: Tattooed ; tattooing .
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
n. pl. tat•toos A permanent mark or design made on the skin by a process of pricking and ingraining an indelible pigment or by raising scars.
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v. To mark the skin with a tattoo.
To form a tattoo on the skin.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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