tut-tut
/tʌtˈtʌt
/(also tut)
exclamation
Used to express disapproval or annoyance: tut-tut, Robin, you disappoint me...
- I also notice that she's dissing the Neanderthals… tut, tut!
- We returned to Sam's car to find he had a £30 quid parking ticket… tut!
- Sara attacked the vending machine till it gave her free stuff, among many other loutish behaviour… tut!
noun
An exclamation of disapproval or annoyance: tut-tuts of disapproval...
- Every interruption is rightly frowned upon by tennis aficionados who use ridiculous stage-whispered tut-tuts to make their point.
- Mikey gave me a disapproving tut before he walked off to ask Murdock something.
- Nobody complained, which seemed rather hypocritical when you think of the tuts and sighs a ringing mobile induces, and the frosty stares you get if you dare speak on one for more than a couple of minutes.
verb (tut-tuts, tut-tutting, tut-tutted) [no object]
Make an exclamation expressing disapproval or annoyance: Aunt Mary tut-tutted at all the goings-on...
- I see other people tutting and staring in the supermarket when he is throwing a tantrum.
- Naturally, being British, I chose not to complain, but instead stood there quietly tutting, sighing, and looking despairingly from my watch to my fellow queuers.
- The Germans were rolling their eyeballs and tutting in amazement.
Origin
Natural utterance (representing a reduplicated clicking sound made by the tongue against the teeth): first recorded in English in the early 16th century.