tart

1 of 2

adjective

ˈtärt 

1

: agreeably sharp or acid to the taste

a tart apple

2

: marked by a biting, acrimonious, or cutting quality

a tart rejoinder

tartish

ˈtär-tish 

adjective

tartly adverb

tartness noun

tart

2 of 2

noun

plural tarts

1

: a dish baked in a pastry shell : pie: such as

a

: a small pie or pastry shell without a top containing jelly, custard, or fruit

b

: a small pie made of pastry folded over a filling

2

informal + disapproving

a

: a woman who has multiple sexual partners : a woman who is sexually promiscuous

b

: a woman who engages in sex acts and especially sexual intercourse in exchange for pay : a woman who is a sex worker

Synonyms

Adjective

• acid
• acidic
• acidulous
• sour
• sourish
• tartish
• vinegary

Noun

• bawd
• call girl
• cocotte
• courtesan
• drab
• hooker
• hustler
• prostitute
• sex worker
• streetwalker
• whore

Examples of tart in a Sentence

Adjective

The wine is rather tart.

The comedian responded to the heckler with a tart comeback.

I didn't add enough sugar to the lemonade, and now it's way too tart.

Noun

another movie featuring an Old West saloon scene with the requisite gamblers, gunslingers, and tarts

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

They're supposed to be Swedish, a little tart and crunchy and store well. —Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 5 Nov. 2024

The acidity from the apple cider vinegar adds a tart twang, which balances itself out with the multiflora honey, an intentional choice too, made of a mix of bush and pasture honeys. —Andrew Watman, Forbes, 31 Oct. 2024

Noun

Cranberry Sauce: Bourbon or Tennessee Whiskey’s Sweetness The tart, fruity brightness of cranberry sauce pairs nicely with a sweeter whiskey that can balance out its zing. —Emily Price, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024

Desserts such as the deceptively simple sounding cookies and milk (the milk is ice cream), an ice cream sundae with peanut butter and chocolate tart with salted caramel are, not surprisingly, delectable given his background as a pastry chef. —Laurie Werner, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Middle English, from Old English teart sharp, severe; akin to Middle High German traz spite

Noun

Middle English tart, tarte, borrowed from Anglo-French tarte (also continental Old French), probably altered from Old French torte, tourte "round loaf," going back to Late Latin tōrta, probably alteration of Latin torta "curved, bent, coiled, twisted," from feminine of tortus, past participle of torquēre "to twist tightly, wind"; (sense 2) earlier, in argot or slang of England, Australia, and New Zealand, "girlfriend," perhaps short for jam tart, rhyming slang for sweetheart — more at torture entry 1

Note: Late Latin <torta> is first attested in several passages of the Vulgate, once as <tortam panis> (with pānis in the genitive). The connection to tortus, an adjective meaning "coiled," would seem natural applied to a round loaf of bread, presumably formable by coiling the dough. French tourte, however, as well as Italian torta (with /o/, not /ɔ/), have the reflex of ō rather than ŏ, a change for which no completely acceptable explanation has been found. J. Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico) sees Late Latin tōrta as originally the plural of a neuter *tōrtum, borrowed from Greek *tōrtídion, formed by crasis from tò artídion, a diminutive of ártos "bread"; though not impossible, the etymology depends crucially on multiple unattested forms. — French tarte would appear to be a modification of to(u)rte. It is attested with a variant tartre in late Old French and modern French dialects, and parallel words can be found in Italian: tartara (13th century) "cake made with almonds and sugar," Upper Italian tartra (Piedmont), tártera (Milan), tartra (Parma). These forms have been attributed to the influence of Medieval Latin tartarum "bitartrate of potassium" (see tartar entry 1), the crusts of which, formed in wine casks, would supposedly have had a likeness to crusts of bread or pastry.

First Known Use

Adjective

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing tart

• tart up

Kids Definition

tart

1 of 2 adjective

ˈtärt 

1

: pleasantly sharp or sour to the taste

2

: having a sharp or biting quality

a tart voice

tartly adverb

tartness noun

tart

2 of 2 noun

: a small pie or pastry shell containing jelly, custard, or fruit