Meanings
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1
noun
a hard deposit of mineralized dental plaque that forms on teeth; dental calculus
The salesman claimed his powder would remove tartar from the teeth.
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2
noun
a crust of potassium hydrogen tartrate deposited during wine fermentation, used to make cream of tartar
The winemaker scraped tartar from the inside of the old barrel.
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3
noun
dated, disparaging: a fierce, harsh, or difficult person
The new supervisor proved a tartar when deadlines were missed.
Thesaurus
Etymology
From Old French tartre and Medieval Latin tartarum, probably through Byzantine Greek. The word first named the wine deposit, then similar mineral crusts such as dental calculus. This lowercase chemical word is historically separate from the ethnonym Tatar.