tart up

[tahrt]

Origin

Tarts www.sephora.com/Tarte Revel in Tarte Makeup at Sephora. Free Samples, Shipping & Perks.

Customer Support Forum www.engagecsm.com/ in a Rails plugin for your startup. Lifetime license from $500

New Startup Owners Manual www.amazon.com/ Get an early copy of Steve Blank's powerful new startup how-to guide

Ads

noun

a small pie filled with cooked fruit or other sweetened preparation, usually having no top crust.

a covered pie containing fruit or the like.

Slang. a prostitute or promiscuous woman.

Tarte www.beauty.com/tarte 20% Off tarte Purchase. Twice Yearly Sale! 20% Off Orders.

Verb phrase

tart up, Slang. to adorn, dress, or decorate, especially in a flamboyant manner: The old restaurant was tarted up to look like a Viennese café.

00:10

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

Tart up is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Origin:
1350–1400; 1905–10 for def. 3; Middle English tarte < Middle French; compare Medieval Latin tarta

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To tart up

Collins

World English Dictionary

tart up

—vb
1.	to dress and make (oneself) up in a provocative way
2.	to decorate or improve the appearance of: to tart up a bar

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

tart

"prostitute," 1887, from earlier use as a term of endearment to a girl or woman (1864), sometimes said to be a shortening of sweetheart. But another theory traces it to jam-tart (see tart (n.1)), which was British slang early 19c. for "attractive woman." To tart (something) up is from 1938.

Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com

Searching for tart up? How many words do you actually know?

FIND OUT

Want tart up ad-free? Click here!

Matching Quote

"With a bending sail we glided rapidly by Tyngsborough and Chelmsford, each holding in one hand half of a tart country apple pie which we had purchased to celebrate our return, and in the other a fragment of the newspaper in which it was wrapped, devouring these with divided relish, and learning the news which had transpired since we sailed. The river here opened into a broad and straight reach of great length, which we bounded merrily over before a smacking breeze, with a devil-may-care look in our faces, and our boat a white bone in its mouth, and a speed which greatly astonished some scow boatmen whom we met. The wind in the horizon rolled like a flood over valley and plain, and every tree bent to the blast, and the mountains like school-boys turned their cheeks to it.... Thus we sailed, not being able to fly, but as next best, making a long furrow in the fields of the Merrimack toward our home, with our wings spread, but never lifting our heel from the watery trench; gracefully plowing homeward with our brisk and willing team, wind and stream, pulling together, the former yet a wild steer, yoked to his more sedate fellow. It was very near flying, as when the duck rushes through the water with an impulse of her wings, throwing the spray about her before she can rise. How we had stuck fast if drawn up but a few feet on the shore!"

-Henry David Thoreau