Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Handmade lace fashioned by looping and knotting a single strand of heavy-duty thread on a small hand shuttle.
  • noun The act or art of making such lace.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as tatty.
  • noun A kind of knotted work, done with cotton or linen thread with a shuttle, reproducing in make and appearance the gimp laces or knotted laces of the sixteenth century, and used for doilies, collars, trimmings, etc.
  • noun The act of making such lace.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of lace made from common sewing thread, with a peculiar stitch.
  • noun the shuttle on which the thread used in tatting is wound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of looped and knotted lace needlework made from a single thread.
  • noun The art of making such lace.
  • verb Present participle of tat.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act or art of making handmade lace
  • noun needlework consisting of handmade lace made by looping and knotting a single thread on a small shuttle

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

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Examples

  • Fatima and I were not rich in tatting edges, and rejoiced when the conversation took another turn.

    Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances 1869

  • She has Christmas fern, autumn fern, ostrich fern, northern maidenhair fern, tassel fern, Japanese painted fern, lady fern, cinnamon fern, sensitive fern and one she calls tatting fern that was new to me.

    news | SJ | http://www.goupstate.com 2009

  • Any woman who had time for frivolité, as the Creoles called tatting, was busy working eyelets on linen.

    Social life in old New Orleans : being recollections of my girlhood, 1912

  • (except for tatting, which is lametably un-rip it rip it rip it-able) you can 'frog' that messed up project right back down to it's yarnie little zero state, and start all over again, no harm done, kiss and make up and better luck next time! photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

    Hankering for Yarn 2009

  • Then there was a beautiful "tatting" collar from her mother, some scarlet mittens from Mrs. Cobb, and a handkerchief from Emma Jane.

    Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 1903

  • Then there was a beautiful "tatting" collar from her mother, some scarlet mittens from Mrs. Cobb, and a handkerchief from Emma Jane.

    Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

  • In every kind of tatting the knot that comes after the picot is independent of the loop.

    Encyclopedia of Needlework Th��r��se de Dillmont 1868

  • There's a lot of posts about "tatting" and networking with other "tatters".

    Ask And Ye Shall Receive 2010

  • David Wareham learned the skill of "tatting" as a child, and kept it up during his time in the Merchant Navy.

    Express & Star 2008

  • They came to have elaborate patterns, often in matching sets for the various items of parlor furniture; they were either made at home using a variety of techniques such as crochet or tatting, or purchased.

    Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Thursday Night Open Thread 2010

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