Tart up

Tart up
adorn; make attractive, especially with cheap ornaments and cosmetics (originally British slang (mid-19th C.); the earilest record is Hotten's 'Slang Dictionary' (1864), where he states it is used "by the London lower orders", and only of women dressed in their best clothes "like the jam tarts in the swell bakers' shops". Thus very probably from rhyming slang 'jam tart' - sweetheart, however, it could just be an ordinary semantic extension of 'tart' meaning 'sweet woman', similar to such terms as 'honey-pie', 'sugar')

Dictionary of Australian slang . 2013.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Tart — Tart, a. [AS. teart. [root]63. Cf. {Tear}, v. t.] 1. Sharp to the taste; acid; sour; as, a tart apple. [1913 Webster] 2. Fig.: Sharp; keen; severe; as, a tart reply; tart language; a tart rebuke. [1913 Webster] Why art thou tart, my brother?… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • tart — tart·ish; tart·let; tart·ly; tart·ness; van·sit·tart·ism; tart; tart·ish·ly; …   English syllables

  • tart — tart1 [tärt] adj. [ME < OE teart < PGmc * trat < IE base * der > TEAR1] 1. sharp in taste; sour; acid; acidulous 2. sharp in meaning or implication; cutting [a tart answer] SYN. SOUR tartly adv. tartness n …   English World dictionary

  • tart — Ⅰ. tart [1] ► NOUN ▪ an open pastry case containing a sweet or savoury filling. DERIVATIVES tartlet noun. ORIGIN Old French tarte. Ⅱ. tart [2] ► …   English terms dictionary

  • Tart — Solicita una imagen para este artículo. Título Tart Ficha técnica …   Wikipedia Español

  • tart — [adj] bitter, sour in taste or effect acerb, acerbic, acetose, acid, acidulous, acrimonious, astringent, barbed, biting, caustic, cutting, dry, harsh, nasty, piquant, pungent, scathing, sharp, short, snappish, snappy, snippy, tangy, testy,… …   New thesaurus

  • Tart — Tart, n. [OE. tarte, F. tarte; perhaps originally the same word as tourte, LL. torta, fr. L. tortus, p. p. of torquere to twist, bend, wind, because tarts were originally made of a twisted shape. Cf. {Torture}, n.] A species of small open pie, or …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • tart|y — «TAHR tee», adjective. Informal. of or like a tart; sharp; snippy …   Useful english dictionary

  • tart — Abreviatura del anión tartrato carboxilado. Diccionario Mosby Medicina, Enfermería y Ciencias de la Salud, Ediciones Hancourt, S.A. 1999 …   Diccionario médico

  • tart — index astringent, bitter (acrid tasting), caustic Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • târţ — interj. v. pârţ. Trimis de siveco, 13.09.2007. Sursa: Sinonime …   Dicționar Român

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”