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)
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
For others, like the composer Roxanna Panufnik, who contributed a setting of Severus Gastorius’s melody “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan,” the project was an opportunity to bring her closer to Bach.
From New York Times ● Oct. 24, 2022
Purists might tut but, really, it shouldn’t matter and really only adds to the spectacle.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 15, 2019
"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
He tutted, rolled his eyes and under his breath muttered 'Who drinks coffee?'
From The Guardian ● Nov. 9, 2012
Zorya Vechernyaya looked over his shoulder, tutted, and removed the wooden borscht bowls.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
When the tutting man left, the woman turned to Mr. Sharkey.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
At first, Evelyn dismisses her husband's frivolity, tutting as she removes the eyes from around her workplace.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2023
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
I walked past the end of the bed to close her window, tutting at her reproachfully.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
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.
