Meanings
- pluralplural onlyClothes made from tartan fabric; specifically, full Highland dress.
[A] chief in Highland pride; / His shoulders bear the hunter's bow, / The mountain dirk adorns his side, / Far on the wind his tartans flow […]
1798 (date written; published 1800), “Glenfinlas, or Lord Ronald’s Coronach”, in Walter Scott, editor, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: […], volume II, Kelso, Roxburghshire: […] James Ballantyne, for T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […]; and sold by Manners and Miller, and A[rchibald] Constable, […], →OCLC, 3rd part (Imitations of the Ancient Ballad), page 3841 more example
[T]hou shalt see a darksome man, / Who boasts him Chief of Alpine's clan, / With tartans broad and shadowy plume, / And hand of blood, and brow of gloom, […]
1810, Walter Scott, “Canto IV. The Prophecy.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XXVII, page 181
- pluralplural of tartan
- indicativepresentsingularthird personthird-person singular simple present indicative of tartan
Origin
From tartan + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum and plural forms of nouns; and third-person singular simple present indicative forms of regular verbs).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
tartans. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tartans
“tartans.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tartans. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tartans,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tartans.
Source: tartans on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.