tut-tut
Americaninterjection
interjection
verb
noun
Etymology
Origin of tut-tut
First recorded in 1585–95
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:
I recognize that it’s easy to ride my high horse to a moral high ground and look down my and my horse’s nose at any app a platform creator may make and tut-tut.
From The Verge ● Mar. 11, 2020
“Suns” is a brutal but fairly simple story, so the opening-night audience knew exactly when to tut-tut.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 15, 2018
We tut-tut the silly names celebrities choose for their offspring.
From Slate ● Mar. 10, 2016
But we can all follow the Putman saga and tut-tut.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 28, 2012
Greene does not tut-tut over the fact that this reasoning depends on complex mathematics.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
But her approval of then-risque fare like Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie” got her tut-tutted by editors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
In a press release the researchers tut-tutted governments for their focus on washing-machine filters, which they called a "Band-Aid" for the issue.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2023
Afterward television commentators tut-tutted about his “lack of respect.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2017
The house is lived in today by scholars sympathetic to Lewis; were it in private ownership, such a layout would doubtless be tut-tutted – eaves guttedand adequate halls installed, wardrobes chucked and closets constructed.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 19, 2016
The chief radio officer at her shoulder tut-tutted under his breath.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Balancing this is the show’s caustic tut-tutting at materialists for wanting these baubles in the first place.
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2025
"It could be good for Harry in the long run, even though the older generation will be tut-tutting," she says.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2023
Their message about Covid, especially the fast-moving variant, flipped from alarm to tut-tutting at any fears.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2022
A cheerful discussion ensued about the cost of various options for shipping, with much tut-tutting and commiserating about how prices had gone up recently, and wasn’t it a shame, and so forth.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 14, 2019
Still tut-tutting about dangerous sports and inept teachers, Madam Pomfrey retreated, leaving Ron and Hermione to help Harry gulp down some water.
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
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.
