Definitions

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

  • noun A cup or cupful.
  • noun a heap, pile.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare French tasse ("cup, cupful").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Partly from Middle English tas ("heap"), from Old French tas ("heap"), from Old Frankish *tas (“mass, pile”); and partly from Middle English taas ("heap, mow of corn"), from Old English tas ("heap, mow of grain"); both from Proto-Germanic *tasaz, *tassaz (“heap, mow, stack”), from Proto-Indo-European *dāy- (“to divide, split, section, part, separate”). Related to Middle Dutch tas, tasse (Dutch tas, "heap, pile"), Middle Low German tas ("mow of hay or wheat"), Gothic  (ungatass, "disorganised, irregular"); and possibly also to Old High German zetten ("to straw, fertilise"), Old Norse tað ("spread dung"). See tath.

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Examples

  • I am glad you managed to lump me together with your other quote from “tass”.

    Think Progress » Fox Cuts Away From Obama-GOP Conversation In Order To Get A Head Start On Attacks: He Was ‘Lecturing’ 2010

  • I read this with care, my brothers, slurping away at the old chai, cup after tass after chasha, crunching my lomticks of black toast dipped in jammiwam and eggiweg.

    Where's the show? John Myles Aavedal 2010

  • ‘Here, Dougal,’ said the laird, ‘gie Steenie a tass of brandy downstairs, till I count the siller and write the receipt.’

    Redgauntlet 2008

  • When they were in the round, Dougal took ae tass of brandy to himsell, and gave another to

    Redgauntlet 2008

  • The Laird expressed his acquiescence in the prudence of this principle, and recommended to the veteran to add a tass of brandy and a flagon of claret to the substantial provisions he had already laid in, to which proposal the Captain readily agreed.

    A Legend of Montrose 2008

  • It has been wonderfully received worldwide except for Russia — Tass [tass, Russian news agency] is screaming bloody murder.

    Reagan, Unscripted Brinkley, Douglas 2007

  • Less than two weeks after Politkovskaya was gunned down, Anatoly Voronin, the business manager of Russia's premiere news agency, Itar-tass, was also murdered.

    "Waking Up the Coast" / "El Despertar de la Costa" 2006

  • Käsitsi filtreerimine tähendab pikka võrku, kuhu pannakse kohvipulber, ja kuhu valatakse jupikaupa vett, raputatakjse, tilgutatakse tassi ja korratakse protseduuri, kuni tass on kohvi täis.

    tatsutahime Diary Entry tatsutahime 2006

  • Hawthorn for May, eglantine for June, and in autumn a little tass of the golden vine for our Northern Star.

    Roundabout Papers 2006

  • I mean, I would say ` I want half a demitasse (pronounced de-mi-tass-ee), 'or, you know, ` What's the soup du jour (pronounced soup doodge-er)?'

    Confessions of a White House Ghostwriter: Five Presidents and other Political Adventures 1997

Comments

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  • as in (demi)tass(e)

    August 31, 2009