| 1. | a member of a modern Turkic people living in the Tatar Autonomous Republic and adjacent regions of eastern European Russia and in widely scattered communities in western Siberia and central Asia. |
| 2. | the language of this people, including the literary language of the Tatar Autonomous Republic, the dialects of the Tatar Autonomous Republic and adjacent regions of the Volga basin (Volga Tatar), and numerous other dialects, some transitional to other Turkic languages. |
| 3. | Crimean Tatar. |
| 4. | Tartar (defs. 1, 2, 4–8). |
| 1. | a member of any of the various tribes, chiefly Mongolian and Turkish, who, originally under the leadership of Genghis Khan, overran Asia and much of eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. |
| 2. | a member of the descendants of this people variously intermingled with other peoples and tribes, now inhabiting parts of the European and W and central Asian Russian Federation. |
| 3. | Tatar (defs. 1–3). |
| 4. | (often lowercase ) a savage, intractable person. |
| 5. | (often lowercase ) an ill-tempered person. |
| 6. | of or pertaining to a Tartar or Tartars; Tartarian. |
| 7. | Tatar (def. 5). Also, Tatar (for defs. 1, 2, 4–8). |
| 8. | catch a Tartar, to deal with someone or something that proves unexpectedly troublesome or powerful. Also, catch a tartar. |

Tar·tar (tär'tər) n.
[Middle English Tartre, from Old French Tartare, from Medieval Latin Tartarus, alteration (influenced by Latin Tartarus, Tartarus) of Persian Tātār; see Tatar.] |
Ta·tar (tä'tər) n.
[Persian Tātār, of Turkic origin.] |
tartar tar·tar (tär'tər)
n.
A hard, yellowish deposit on the teeth, consisting of organic secretions and food particles deposited in various salts, such as calcium carbonate. Also called dental calculus.
tatar human language
A Turkic language spoken by about five million Tatars in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and elsewhere; the official language of the Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation).
language codes: tt, tat.
(2006-12-11)