tart

/tɑrt/

/tɑt/

Other forms: tarts; tarter; tartest

A tart is small pie filled with fruit or custard, with no top crust, like the cherry tarts you bought at the bakery.

As an adjective, tart describes a sour taste, like lemon, or harsh words, like your friend's tart reply to a question that makes her mad. In the 19th century, tart was British slang for "pretty woman." Some believe it is a shortening of "sweetheart." But by the end of that century, tart described a prostitute, something many language scholars trace back to the tart that you get at the bakery.

Definitions of tart

1. adjective

   tasting sour like a lemon
   synonyms: lemonlike, lemony, sourish, tangy

   sour

   having a sharp biting taste
2. adjective

   harsh
   “a tart remark”

   synonyms: sharp, sharp-worded

   unpleasant

   disagreeable to the senses, to the mind, or feelings
3. noun

   a small open pie with a fruit filling
   types:

   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

   quiche Lorraine

   quiche made with cheese and bacon

   type of:

   pie

   dish baked in pastry-lined pan often with a pastry top
4. noun

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

   apple tart

   a tart filled with sliced apples and sugar

   type of:

   pastry

   any of various baked foods made of dough or batter
5. noun

   a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money
   types:

   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 woman whose sexual promiscuity places her outside respectable society

   type of:

   adult female, woman

   an adult female person (as opposed to a man)