tattoo

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A signal sounded on a drum or bugle to summon soldiers or sailors to their quarters at night.
2. n. A display of military exercises offered as evening entertainment.
3. n. A continuous, even drumming or rapping.
4. v. To beat out an even rhythm, as with the fingers.
5. v. To beat or tap rhythmically on; rap or drum on.
6. n. A permanent mark or design made on the skin by a process of pricking and ingraining an indelible pigment or by raising scars.
7. n. A design made on the skin with a temporary dye such as henna or ink.
8. v. To mark (the skin) with a tattoo.
9. v. To form (a tattoo) on the skin.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In India, a native-bred pony or small horse. Also, by abbreviation, tat. See tat.
2. n. A beat of drum and bugle-call at night, giving notice to soldiers to repair to their quarters in garrison or to their tents in camp; in United States men-of-war, a bugle-call or beat of drum at 9 p. m.
3. To beat the tattoo; make a noise like that of the tattoo.
4. To mark, as the surface of the body, with indelible patterns produced by pricking the skin and inserting different pigments in the punctures. Sailors and others mark the skin with legends, love-emblems, etc.; and some uncivilized peoples, especially the New Zealanders and the Dyaks of Borneo, cover large surfaces of the body with ornamental patterns in this way. Tattooing is sometimes ordered by sentence of court martial as a punishment instead of branding, as by indelibly marking a soldier with D for “deserter,” or T for “thief.” It is also an occasional surgical operation.
5. n. A pattern, legend, or picture produced by tattooing: used also attributively: as, tattoo marks.

Wiktionary

1. n. An image made in the skin with ink and a needle.
2. n. A method of decorating the skin by inserting colored substances under the surface. The skin is punctured with a sharp instrument, which now is usually a solenoid-driven needle, that carries the inks to lower layers of the skin.
3. v. To apply a tattoo to (someone or something).
4. v. baseball To hit the ball hard, as if to figuratively leave a tattoo on the ball.
5. n. nautical A signal played five minutes before taps (lights out).
6. n. A signal by drum or bugle ordering soldiers to return to their quarters.
7. n. A military display or pageant.
8. n. A breed of pony from India; a pony of that breed.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Mil.) A beat of drum, or sound of a trumpet or bugle, at night, giving notice to soldiers to retreat, or to repair to their quarters in garrison, or to their tents in camp.
2. v. To color, as the flesh, by pricking in coloring matter, so as to form marks or figures which can not be washed out.
3. n. An indelible mark or figure made by puncturing the skin and introducing some pigment into the punctures; -- a mode of ornamentation practiced by various barbarous races, both in ancient and modern times, and also by some among civilized nations, especially by sailors.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a design on the skin made by tattooing
2. n. a drumbeat or bugle call that signals the military to return to their quarters
3. n. the practice of making a design on the skin by pricking and staining
4. v. stain (skin) with indelible color