vat

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English vat, a dialectal variant of fat (“vat, vessel, cask”), from Old English fæt (“vat, vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *fat, from Proto-Germanic *fatą (“vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *pod- (“vessel”).

Cognate with Scots fat, vat, vautt (“vat, cask, tub”), West Frisian fet, Dutch vat (“barrel, cask, vessel, vat”), German Fass (“barrel, keg, drum, cask, vat”), Danish fad (“saucer, dish”), Swedish fat (“dish, barrel, cask, vat”), Icelandic fat (“dish, saucer”). See fat.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /væt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

Noun

vat (plural vats)

1. A large tub, such as is used for making wine or for tanning.

   a vat of liquid

   a vat of acid

   a vat of wine

   a vat of olives

   a vat of fat

   a vat of glue

2. A square, hollow place on the back of a calcining furnace, where tin ore is laid to dry.
3. (Roman Catholicism) A vessel for holding holy water.
4. (dated) A liquid measure and dry measure; especially, a liquid measure in Belgium and Holland, corresponding to the hectolitre of the metric system, which contains 22.01 imperial gallons, or 26.4 standard gallons in the United States.

Verb

vat (third-person singular simple present vats, present participle vatting, simple past and past participle vatted)

1. (transitive) To put into a vat.
2. (transitive) To blend (wines or spirits) in a vat; figuratively, to mix or blend elements as if with wines or spirits.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, published 1985, page 114:

     He was thinking of the grape arbor in Kingston, of summer twilight and the murmur of voices darkening into silence as he approached, who meant them, her, no harm; who meant her less than harm, good God; darkening into the pale whisper of her white dress, of the delicate and urgent mammalian whisper of that curious small flesh which he had not begot and in which appeared to be vatted delicately some seething sympathy with the blossoming grape.

Adjective

vat (not comparable)

1. Designating a vat dye.

   vat red

   vat jade green

Anagrams

• ATV, TVA, VTA, tav, vta

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fat/

Etymology 1

From Dutch vatten.

Etymology 2

From Dutch vat.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin vātēs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbat]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [ˈvat]

Noun

vat m (plural vats)

1. vates (divinely inspired poet or seer)

Etymology

From German Watte

Noun

vat

1. cotton wool

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɑt/
• Rhymes: -ɑt

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch vat, from Old Dutch *fat, from Proto-West Germanic *fat, from Proto-Germanic *fatą.

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch vat, ultimately from the source of Etymology 1 above, as the Middle Dutch sense was "pot, object to put something in." Related to vatten.

Etymology

From German Wasser, English water, and Dutch water.

Noun

vat (nominative plural vats)

1. water

Etymology

From Middle English fat, from Old English fǣtt, from Proto-West Germanic *faitid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vat/

Adjective

vat

1. fat
   • 1867, “ABOUT AN OLD SOW GOING TO BE KILLED”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 106:

     Ich aam a vat hog it's drue. Aar is ken apan aam.

     I am a fat hog, 'tis true. There is ken upon them.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 74