tartar

plural tartars

1. countableuncountableA red compound deposited during wine making, mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate; wine stone — a source of cream of tartar.

   In order to preserve it in the state of protoxide these receipts prescribe various deoxygenating substances to be stirred into the melted glass, such as Smith's clinkers, tartar, soot, rotten wood, and cinnibar.

   1847, editorial staff, “Painting on Glass”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 72

   Synonyms: wine stone

2. countableuncountableA hard yellow deposit on the teeth, formed from dental plaque.

plural tartars

1. datedA fearsome or angrily violent person.

   Mrs. Begg said she liked Mrs. Dain, who was a sensible woman and a first-rate housewife, but that Gabrielle was a tartar.

   1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 3, in The Dain Curse, New York: Vintage, published 1972, page 28

plural Tartars

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of Tatar.
2. A member of the various tribes and their descendants of Tartary, such as Turks, Mongols and Manchus.

   Persia is a great country, which was in old times very illustrious and powerful; but now the Tartars have wasted and destroyed it.

   1871, Henry Yule, transl., The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo, book 1, chapter 13

3. datedfigurativelyA person of a keen, irritable temper.
4. figurativelyA rough or violent event.

   I haven't escaped sickness all my life to get off easily now. […] I knew when my turn came, it would be a Tartar.

   2003, Erik Larson, “Alone”, in The Devil in the White City, Vintage Books, page 106

comparative more Tartar · superlative most Tartar

1. Of or relating to the people or culture of Tartars.

   Tartar customs

1. One of the tributary rivers of the Kura, flowing through Artsakh and Azerbaijan.
2. A town in Azerbaijan located on this river.