Dictionary

tarty en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From tart + -y.

Meanings

1. (UK, slang) Like a tart (promiscuous woman); slutty, whorish.
   • Ravey Davy's flashy, trashy signature style doesn't seem to be quite as big a hit among the Boujis Boozers as I might have hoped. Maybe it'll get tartier as the season progresses and the climate allows for rising hemlines. 2007 February 24, Polly Vernon, “Posh versus grunge - the new bar wars”, in The Guardian:
   • Atwood's Edible Woman offers a brilliant analysis of woman as consumable in consumer capitalism: when Marian turns out in a tarty hairdo and red dress... 1991, Gayle Greene, Changing the Story: Feminist Fiction and the Tradition:
   • The vice trust, with equal ingenuity, sent prostitutes dressed in their tartiest outfits into respectable neighborhoods to inquire about apartments for rent. 2004, Thomas A Reppetto, American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power:
2. Somewhat tart.
   • Because of its tarty taste, and the fact that (in animal experiments) it has shown to have a toxic effect, for culinary uses the rape oil is ‘hardened’ (hydrogenation of the double bond!). 2005, Dietrich Frohne, Hans Jürgen Pfänder, translated by Inge Alford, Poisonous Plants: A Handbook for Doctors, Pharmacists, Toxicologists, Biologists and Veterinarians, 2nd edition, Portland, Ore.: Timber Press, →ISBN, page 109, column 3:
   • I mean, sure, the gummy cherry might have a well-balanced sweet and tarty taste, but the gummy frog has a far denser texture, which requires at least three times more chewing than the cherry and is therefore, of the two, a far better value. 2009, Kathleen Lane, Nana Cracks the Case!, San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN, pages 81–82:
   • Now, I lets mine boil a bit longer than Lizzy, to sweeten the tarty taste. 1999, Donna Morrissey, Kit’s Law, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Mariner Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 242:

Forms

Deriveds

tartiness · tartily