vat

Etymology

From Middle English vat, a dialectal variant of fat (“vat, vessel, cask”), from Old English fæt (“vat, vessel”), 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 fat.

noun

1. A large tub, such as is used for making wine or for tanning.
   a vat of liquid
   a vat of acid
   a vat of wine
   a vat of olives
   a vat of fat
   a vat of glue
2. A square, hollow place on the back of a calcining furnace, where tin ore is laid to dry.
3. (Roman Catholicism) A vessel for holding holy water.
4. (dated) 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.

verb

1. (transitive) To put into a vat.
2. (transitive) To blend (wines or spirits) in a vat; figuratively, to mix or blend elements as if with wines or spirits.
   He was thinking of the grape arbor in Kingston, of summer twilight and the murmur of voices darkening into silence as he approached, who meant them, her, no harm; who meant her less than harm, good God; darkening into the pale whisper of her white dress, of the delicate and urgent mammalian whisper of that curious small flesh which he had not begot and in which appeared to be vatted delicately some seething sympathy with the blossoming grape. 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, published 1985, page 114

adj

1. Designating a vat dye.
   vat red
   vat jade green