tut
Americaninterjection
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(used as an exclamation of contempt, disdain, impatience, etc.)
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for shame!
noun
verb (used without object)
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tuts,
present (3rd person singular)
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tutted,
past participle, past
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tutting
present participle
interjection
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tutsimple
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tutssimple
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have tuttedperfect
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has tuttedperfect
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am tuttingprogressive
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are tuttingprogressive
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is tuttingprogressive
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have been tuttingperfect progressive
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has been tuttingperfect progressive
Past
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tuttedsimple
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had tuttedperfect
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was tuttingprogressive
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were tuttingprogressive
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had been tuttingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tut
First recorded in 1520–30
Explanation
To tut is to express your feelings of irritation or displeasure. You might tut quietly at your friend's badly behaved dog. Since the 1520s, tut and tut-tut have been used as interjections to express contempt or impatience; and to make such a disapproving sound is to tut. Your substitute teacher might say, "Tut, class, I'm not happy with all the noise you're making," and your piano teacher might tut a bit when you confess that you didn't practice at all this week.
Vocabulary lists containing tut
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:
Those concerned that the stock market is vulnerable to a sharp pullback may tap their screens and tut at the chart from Torsten Slok, Apollo’s chief economist.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025
"Ya tut," he said, meaning: "I am here."
From Reuters ● Feb. 15, 2023
It was one of those moments when modern Westerners like me often tut and think "Oh, why can't we leave these people's customs alone?"
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2018
Serious talking shows go through the motions with a smile and a tut tut tut approach.
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2018
"Yes," Yellow said, "tut what can we do? We cannot make it rain. We cannot dishonor Mother with disobedience."
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
Peeking over her shoulder at her notes, he tuts, “Doesn’t sycophant have an ‘o’?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2025
She offers that, but when I get out of the shower, she tuts about how she had to do all the dishes.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 6, 2022
It’s a righteously angry movie: “The whole damn city has a ‘for rent’ sign on it,” tuts a character.
From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2018
"However, they need to be very carefully programmed because you need to understand where to put the pauses, tuts, breathes and possibly a cough."
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2014
Far away—too far away for me to care—someone tuts with disapproval, but I ignore it as the splendor builds in my core.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
I tutted something about the symptoms of perimenopause and ignored it - but two days later I was laid up in bed with gastric flu.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2024
“Tall John is running late today, too,” Tutt tutted.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2022
She tutted at the audacity of doubting “feminine creative forces.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2022
In one of the heart-rending conversations we had, days before her death, my mother shook her head and tutted: “I’m disappointed. You should have had me for another 30 years.”
From The Guardian ● Nov. 9, 2019
Cumulus tutted, as one would at a slow child.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
When the tutting man left, the woman turned to Mr. Sharkey.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Choreographer Randi Freitas performed alongside a crew of dancers krumping and tutting to Kendrick Lamar down a black runway in the yard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
After watching the impeccable tutting routine by a group called Geometrie Variable, Ne-Yo had one question for his fellow judges on NBC’s “World of Dance.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 21, 2020
Alas, there’s no time for such Austen-ian confrontations in Gerwig’s movie—only a brief lecture from a tutting Streep after they’re already married—and Meg and Brooke’s romance is confined to making goo-goo eyes at each other.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2019
What have you gotten yourself into? the shadows seemed to say, tutting and harrumphing.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
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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.
