vat

CEFRB2

/væt/

noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A very large container used for mixing or storing liquids.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A square, hollow place on the back of a calcining furnace, where tin ore is laid to dry.

Examples

  • How do you know you're not a brain in a vat?

  • If I were a brain in a vat, I wouldn't write this.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A vessel for holding holy water.

  2. A large tub, such as is used for making wine or for tanning.

  3. A liquid measure and dry measure; especially, a liquid measure in Belgium and Holland, corresponding to the hectolitre of the metric system, which contains 22.01 imperial gallons, or 26.4 standard gallons in the United States.

More examples

In context

  • The VAT in Germany is 19 per cent.

  • a vat of acid

  • a vat of liquid

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The brewery uses a huge steel blank to ferment thousands of gallons of beer.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Inherited from Middle English vat, a dialectal variant of fat (“vat, vessel, cask”), from Old English fæt (“vat, vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *fat, from Proto-Germanic *fatą (“vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *pod- (“vessel”). Cognate with Scots fat, vat, vautt (“vat, cask, tub”), West Frisian fet, Dutch vat (“barrel, cask, vessel, vat”), German Fass (“barrel, keg, drum, cask, vat”), Danish fad (“saucer, dish”), Swedish fat (“dish, barrel, cask, vat”), Icelandic fat (“dish, saucer”). See Etymology 3 of fat.