subs. (old).—1. A bad or awkward tempered person: male or female. TO CATCH A TARTAR = (1) to be caught in one’s own trap; and (2) to get more than one bargained for, or the worst of an encounter (B. E. and GROSE). [Encyclopædic Dictionary: Properly Tatar. ‘The r was inserted in mediæval times to suggest that the Asiatic hordes who occasioned such anxiety to Europe came from hell (Tartarus), and were the locusts of Revelation ix.’] Hence (2) an adept: e.g., ‘He is quite a TARTAR at cricket or billiards’ (GROSE).
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, I. iii.
| Now thou hast got me for a TARTAR, | |
| To make m’ against my will take quarter. |
1748. SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, xxx. The captain, who, looking at me with a contemptuous sneer, exclaimed, ‘Ah! ah! have you CAUGHT A TARTAR?’
1772. FOOTE, The Nabob [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 185]. [One man may] CATCH A TARTAR [in another].
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 171.
| He turn’d him back and stole the cart, | |
| And strait dispatch’d it to his quarters, | |
| For fear of Justice Fielding’s TARTARS. |
1862. THACKERAY, The Adventures of Philip, xiv. A TARTAR that fellow was, and no mistake.
1868. WHYTE-MELVILLE, The White Rose, II. i. This disconsolate suitor, whose first wife had been what is popularly called a TARTAR.
1901. Free Lance, 9 March, 558. 1. Occasionally, of course, Barabbas CATCHES A TARTAR who threatens legal proceedings and demands to inspect the publisher’s books. Needless to say, the books were ‘cooked’ from the first in view of such an eventuality.
3. See TARTARIAN.
