taters

Meanings

1. 1nounpluralinformal

   A casual, playful word for potatoes, especially when cooked or served as food.

   Grammar: Plural form of tater, used for more than one potato.

   Patterns

   • mashed taters
   • fried taters

   Grandma served fried chicken with a big bowl of mashed taters.

   We roasted taters in the campfire coals.

   Pass the taters, please, and a bit of butter.

2. 2adjectiveafter a verbBritishslang

   In British slang, cold, from the rhyming phrase taters in the mould.

   Grammar: Used after be: it's taters out there.

   Patterns

   • it's taters

   Put your coat on, it's taters out there tonight.

   My hands were taters after the walk.

Word forms

Common combinations

mashed taters

The diner is famous for its mashed taters and gravy.

fried taters

He ate fried taters with his eggs.

baked taters

We had baked taters and sour cream.

tater tots

The kids asked for tater tots with their burgers.

couch tater

My brother has become a real couch tater on the weekends.

Synonyms and how they differ

spuds

Spuds is also informal but is more common in British and Irish speech, while taters sounds more American and rustic.

potatoes

Potatoes is the neutral and standard word, whereas taters is playful and casual.

chips

In British English chips are fried strips of potato, so it names a specific dish, not the vegetable in general.

Word family

tater noun

informal word for one potato

potato noun

the standard word for the vegetable

couch potato noun

a person who spends a lot of time sitting watching television

Commonly confused: taters or taters?

Practice

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