slang. Also tatt. [Origin unascertained.] pl. Tats: Dice; esp. false or loaded dice. b. Comb. as tat-box, a dice-box; tat-monger, a sharper who uses false dice. See also TATSMAN.
1688. Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, I. H. … Pox o’ the Tatts for me! I believe they put the Doctor upon me. B. Tatts and Doctor! what’s that? S. The tools of Sharpers, false dice. Ibid. He was but a Sharper, a tat-monger.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Tatts, false Dice.
a. 1809. J. Palmer, Like Master (1811), I. xv. 215. He ransacks every house in St. James’s parish, where the tats are at work, to punish those for what he, himself, practised.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Tatt-box, a dice-box.
1887. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip, ii. Rattle the tats, or mark the spot.
