Tartan

Quick meaning: Tartan is a noun meaning A type of fly used in fly fishing, often to catch salmon.

Meaning

A type of fly used in fly fishing, often to catch salmon.

More Meanings

1. A young person who is a member of a Protestant gang in Northern Ireland.
2. (uncountable, Scotland) Ellipsis of tartan-purry (“a porridge made from cabbage mixed with oatmeal”).
3. An individual who wears tartan (etymology 1, noun sense 1.2); specifically, a Scottish Highlander, or a Scottish person (chiefly a Scotsman) in general.
4. Preceded by the: a group of people customarily wearing tartan; Scottish Highlanders or Scottish people collectively; also, the soldiers of a Scottish Highland regiment collectively.
5. (uncountable, chiefly attributive) Originally a trade name in the form Tartan: a synthetic resin used for surfacing ramps, running tracks, etc.
6. Made of tartan (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1), or having a distinctive pattern of coloured stripes intersecting at right angles like a that of a tartan.
7. (uncountable) Woven woollen fabric with a distinctive pattern of coloured stripes intersecting at right angles originally associated with Scottish Highlanders, now with different clans (though this only dates from the late 18th century) and some Scottish families and institutions having their own patterns; (countable) a particular type of such fabric.

Example Sentences

The Shankill was a tough district all right. It was really hard-line Protestant and most of the kids were in tough Prod gangs, like the Tartans.

Running tracks are also known as tartan tracks. One lap of a tartan track is usually 400 metres, so it is easy to keep track of your running performance.

But of oatmeal we have tartan—tartan purry it was sometimes called, and probably therefore was a partially French invention—a pudding made chiefly of chopped kale and oatmeal; […]

The country which lay just above this pass was now the theatre of a war such as the Highlands had not often witnessed. Men wearing the same tartan, and attached to the same lord, were arrayed against each other.

Word Forms

• tartans
• tartaning
• tartaned
• tartana
• tartane

Synonyms for tartan

Depending on context, synonyms include plaid.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include plaid, tartana, sett, tartaryn, tonnag, tattersall.

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