Tart
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A type of small open pie, or piece of pastry, now typically containing jelly (US) / jam (UK) or conserve, or sometimes other fillings (chocolate, custard, egg, butter, historically even meat or other savory fillings).
- 2 A prostitute. British, slang
- 3 a pastry cup with a filling of fruit or custard and no top crust wordnet
- 4 A melt (block of wax for use in a tart burner).
- 5 Any woman with loose sexual morals. broadly, derogatory, slang
"We know the majority of the places that these tarts will hang out at."
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 a small open pie with a fruit filling wordnet
- 7 a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money wordnet
- 1 To practice prostitution.
- 2 To practice promiscuous sex.
- 3 To dress garishly, ostentatiously, whorishly, or sluttily.
- 1 Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.
"I ate a very tart apple."
- 2 High or too high in acidity.
- 3 Sharp; keen; severe. figuratively
"He gave me a very tart reply."
- 1 harsh wordnet
- 2 tasting sour like a lemon wordnet
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"After I pick some blueberries, I make a tart."
Etymology
From Middle English tart, from Old English teart (“sharp, rough, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *tart, from Proto-Germanic *tartaz (“rough, sharp, tearing”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to flay, split, cleave”). Related to Scots tairt (“tart; tartness”), Dutch tarten (“to defy, challenge, mock”), German trotzen (“to defy, brave, mock”), perhaps Albanian thartë (“sour, acid, sharp”).
From Middle English tart, tarte, from Old French tarte, tartre (“flat pastry”) (compare Medieval Latin tarta), of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of Old French torte, tourte, from Latin turta, perhaps from tŏrta f (“twisted”), in which case it would be cognate to torta.
From a rebracketing of sweetheart, or from jam tart (“attractive woman”) by shortening.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.