tarten

English

From tart +‎ -en.

tarten (third-person singular simple present tartens, present participle tartening, simple past and past participle tartened)

(transitive) To make tart or bitter
- 1956, Library Journal, volume 81, page 2257:
  These faults in a scholar tend to tarten the writing, to enliven the reader.
- 1964, Long Island Forum, volumes 27-29, page 169:
  I loved their shouts of welcome as I trudged across the fields carrying the heavy jug. Mama mixed the old time drink from cold well water, a pinch of ginger, molasses and some vinegar to tarten it.
- 1991, The Lyric Opera companion, The History, Lore, and Stories of the World's Greatest Operas:
  He knew precisely when to spice the orchestration with percussive pepper, when to add a pinch more of sugar, when to tarten the mixture with a squeeze or two of lime.
(intransitive) To become tart or bitter
- 1928, The Second American Caravan: A Yearbook of American Literature:
  […] her sweetness tartened as one side of her clutched loyalty, the other love.

From Middle Dutch torten, tarten, terten, from Old Dutch *trotton, *tratton, further etymology unknown. Cognate with Middle High German tratzen, trotzen, tretzen, with the same variation in stem vowel.

tarten

to provoke, to dare, to affront
het lot tarten ― to tempt fate

Hij tartte het lot ― He tempted fate.