vat

1 of 3

noun

ˈvat

: a large vessel (such as a cistern, tub, or barrel) especially for holding liquors in an immature state or preparations for dyeing or tanning

: a liquor containing a dye converted into a soluble reduced colorless or weakly colored form that on textile material steeped in the liquor and exposed to the air is converted by oxidation to the original insoluble dye and precipitated in the fiber

vat

2 of 3

verb

vatted; vatting

transitive verb

: to put into or treat in a vat

VAT

3 of 3

abbreviation

value-added tax

Examples of vat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Streams of pearl vapor swirl upward from a rectangular vat in an open kitchen at the Indigenous Food Lab, where Ismael Popoca Aguilar is stirring a mixture of limestone, water, and corn with a thick wooden spoon. —

Colette Davidson, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Sep. 2023 This is a blend of grenache noir and syrah, aged in concrete vats for six months. —

Dave McIntyre, Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2023 It was distilled four times in column stills at the distillery in Żyrardów, Poland, filtered through cellulose, and finally rested for 10 months in steel vats before bottling. —

Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 12 Sep. 2023 Thirty-six hours later, Monfils was mysteriously found dead at the bottom of a two-story vat with a 40-pound weight tied around his neck. —

Sean Neumann, Peoplemag, 28 Apr. 2023 The reimagining of director Macon Blair’s original film — centered on a mild-mannered man named Melvin who becomes disfigured after falling into a vat of toxic waste and goes on to fight bad guys under the superhero name Toxie — also stars Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon. —

Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Aug. 2023 The Sox are falling off a cliff, with a few sticks of dynamite strapped onto their backs, and into a vat of quicksand. —

Chicago Tribune Staff, Chicago Tribune, 8 Aug. 2023 Giant vats of black beans for the next day steamed on a counter. —

Globe Columnist, BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2023 Case in point: digital light processing, which employs thousands of tiny mirrors to focus photons precisely at the bottom of the resin vat on this affordable and powerful printer to ensure uniform distribution with intense attention to detail. —

PCMAG, 11 July 2023

Verb

Triple-copper-pot-distilled, then aged in a combination of bourbon and Oloroso sherry barrels, the whiskeys comprising Rare Cask #3 were left to mature for 13 years, after which they were vatted together to continue developing for another 17 years in a trio of first-fill Madeira casks. —

Richard Carleton Hacker, Robb Report, 26 Feb. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English vet, vat, southern variant of fat, fet, going back to Old English fæt, going back to Germanic *fata- (whence Old Saxon fat "vessel," Old High German faz); akin to Lithuanian púodas "pot"

First Known Use

Noun

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1784, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of vat was in the 12th century

See more words from the same century