Word.ws English Dictionary

clart

/klɑːt/

clart noun: a daub.

Noun

clart (plural clarts)

  1. A daub.
    • a clart of grease
  2. (Northern England, Scotland) Sticky mud, mire or filth.
    • I’m but a county Surveyor,– not really at m’ best upon the grand and global type of expedition, content here at home, old Geordie a-slog thro’ the clarts […].1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
  3. (Geordie, derogatory) A person who is unclean.
  4. (Geordie, derogatory) A fool.
  5. Unwanted stuff; junk; clutter; rubbish; stuff that is in the way.
    • I need to get rid of all this clart. (Clearing unwanted items from a table top)

Verb

clart (third-person singular simple present clarts, present participle clarting, simple past and past participle clarted)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To daub, smear, or spread, especially with mud, etc.; to dirty.
    • Chris boiled water in kettles for hours and hours and then towels came down, towels clairted with stuff she didn't dare look at, she washed them quick and hung them to dry.1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 43

Forms of clart

Noun
pluralclarts
alternative formclairt
alternative formclort
Verb
third-person singular presentclarts
present participleclarting
past participleclarted
pastclarted

Origin of clart

From Middle English *clart, found in the verb biclarten (“to cover or smear with dirt”). Cognate with Scots clart, clairt (“to besmear”), Scots clarty (“dirty”). Further origin uncertain.

Words formed from clart

Words that rhyme with clart

32 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about clart

What does clart mean?
Clart means a daub.
What part of speech is clart?
Clart can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce clart?
Clart is pronounced /klɑːt/.
What is the plural of clart?
The plural of clart is clarts.

Words near clart in the dictionary

  1. Clarry
  2. clarsach
  3. clarsachs
  4. clarseach
  5. clarseachs
  6. clart
  7. clarted
  8. clartier
  9. clartiest
  10. clarting
  11. clarts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clart (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-clart.wav.

Cite this entry: “clart.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clart. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.