Definition of "tattoo" []

• A signal sounded on a drum or bugle to summon soldiers or sailors to their quarters at night. (noun)
• A display of military exercises offered as evening entertainment. (noun)
• A continuous, even drumming or rapping. (noun)
• To beat out an even rhythm, as with the fingers. (verb-intransitive)
• To beat or tap rhythmically on; rap or drum on. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Inside the tattoo is a series of numbers that she didn't even realize were there ... but that have great significance."
• "But you can not tell me that every person with a tattoo is an idiot, uneducated, or trashy."
• "They are participants in a cultural wave as huge as the Pacific surf, the islands from which the word "tattoo" originated."