TART

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tart mean? 

• TART (noun)
  The noun TART has 3 senses:

1. a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money

2. a small open pie with a fruit filling

3. a pastry cup with a filling of fruit or custard and no top crust

  Familiarity information: TART used as a noun is uncommon.

• TART (adjective)
  The adjective TART has 2 senses:

1. tasting sour like a lemon

2. harsh

  Familiarity information: TART used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TART (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bawd; cocotte; cyprian; fancy woman; harlot; lady of pleasure; prostitute; sporting lady; tart; whore; woman of the street; working girl

Hypernyms ("tart" is a kind of...):

adult female; woman (an adult female person (as opposed to a man))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tart"):

call girl (a female prostitute who can be hired by telephone)

camp follower (a prostitute who provides service to military personnel)

comfort woman; ianfu (a woman forced into prostitution for Japanese servicemen during World War II)

demimondaine (a female prostitute)

floozie; floozy; hooker; hustler; slattern; street girl; streetwalker (a prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets)

white slave (a woman sold into prostitution)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A small open pie with a fruit filling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("tart" is a kind of...):

pie (dish baked in pastry-lined pan often with a pastry top)

Domain region:

America; the States; U.S.; U.S.A.; United States; United States of America; US; USA (North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tart"):

quiche (a tart filled with rich unsweetened custard; often contains other ingredients (as cheese or ham or seafood or vegetables))

apple tart (a small open pie filled with sliced apples and sugar)

lobster tart (a pastry shell filled with cooked lobster)

tartlet (a small tart usually used as a canape)

Derivation:

tartlet (a small tart usually used as a canape)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A pastry cup with a filling of fruit or custard and no top crust

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("tart" is a kind of...):

pastry (any of various baked foods made of dough or batter)

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tart"):

apple tart (a tart filled with sliced apples and sugar)

Derivation:

tartlet (a small tart usually used as a canape)

• TART (adjective)

Comparative: tarter   
Superlative: tartest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tasting sour like a lemon

Synonyms:

lemonlike; lemony; sourish; tangy; tart

Similar:

sour (having a sharp biting taste)

Derivation:

tartness (a sharp sour taste)

tartness (the taste experience when vinegar or lemon juice is taken into the mouth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Harsh

Synonyms:

sharp; sharp-worded; tart

Context example:

a tart remark

Similar:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

Derivation:

tartness (a rough and bitter manner)

 Context examples 

Miss Bates, let Emma help you to a little bit of tart—a very little bit.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She was really hungry, so the chicken and tarts served to divert her attention for a time.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

By my soul, said Sir Oliver, you are as tart as verjuice this morning!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Grant hardly knows what the natural taste of our apricot is: he is scarcely ever indulged with one, for it is so valuable a fruit; with a little assistance, and ours is such a remarkably large, fair sort, that what with early tarts and preserves, my cook contrives to get them all.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A pair of hot roast fowls—from the pastry-cook's; a dish of stewed beef, with vegetables—from the pastry-cook's; two little corner things, as a raised pie and a dish of kidneys—from the pastrycook's; a tart, and (if I liked) a shape of jelly—from the pastrycook's.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Burdened with the guilty consciousness of the sequestered tarts, and fearing that Dodo's sharp eyes would pierce the thin disguise of cambric and merino which hid their booty, the little sinners attached themselves to 'Dranpa', who hadn't his spectacles on.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Even some small characteristic, such as having an apricot tart on your sideboard all the year round, or putting your candle out at night by stuffing it under your pillow, serves to separate you from your neighbour.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She could not bear that her master should not be able to have another apple-tart this spring.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I could not eat the tart; and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers, seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and tart away.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It chanced however that, on one of these mornings when the evil mood was upon her, Agatha the young tire-woman, thinking to please her mistress, began also to toss her head and make tart rejoinder to the teacher's questions.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)