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Glite Dictionary
tatting

tatting

1 9.9
A way of making small, pretty lace by hand with a shuttle or needle
  • noun
  • /ˈtætɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : encaje
  • She then hastily dried her eyes with a wadded handkerchief trimmed in blue tatting and smoothed the skirts of her prim brown sateen dress.
  • tatting lace

Examples

  • Yemeni refers to the small, square, pastel-colored, and printed gauze scarves that women trim with beads and tatting.

    Academic text (1994)

  • " Eleanor dropped her ivory tatting shuttle.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Then she got out her tatting or reached for a deck of cards.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • She turned her back on them and sat in a chair close to the settee where Eleanor Butler was doing her tatting.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Fixing their tatting to the edges, they made 12 napkins, six handkerchiefs, and six long strips to tie back curtains.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • She enjoys tatting intricate patterns with her grandmother's old shuttle.

  • The lace tablecloth was beautifully crafted using the tatting technique.

  • At the craft fair, they displayed various examples of tatting, showcasing its delicate artistry.

Synonyms

lacework
vstatting
1 6.8

A delicate open pattern of threads used to decorate veils or dresses

is the specific hand method that makes such fabric rather than the general pattern
lace making
vstatting
4.4

A craft that forms delicate open patterns from thread by hand

is a single hand method using a shuttle or needle rather than many techniques

How Intricate

bobbin lace
  • Specialized
1 9.1
tatting
  • Specialized
1 9.9
crochet
16 5.2
knitting
50 1.2
sewing
77 1.0

Surface Forms

tatting singular
tattings plural

Morphology

tatting = tat (transparent) = tat + ing

Derived directly from the verb 'tat' with the gerund/nominalizing suffix '-ing', so the noun denotes the activity or product of tatting.

Etymology

Tatting comes from the short verb tat, probably copying the quick 'tat-tat' sound of making many tiny knots with a shuttle or needle. So tatting is the craft of making delicate lace by tying those small knots.