Tabetari?
 

my dictionary gives a conjugation called "alternative".
Taberu, to eat, is conjugated, tabetari.

what does that mean?

verb + tari
means that sort of things, like that, and things like that, such as, etc.

It's not so easy to explain this particular conjugation, but I'll give it a shot.

The -tari (tari suru) conjugation is used when you're giving a list of actions/verbs, instead of directly stating the verbs. Here's an example, using taberu (to eat) and asobu (to play).

私たちは食べたり、遊んだりしました。
Watashitachi wa tabetari, asondari shimashita. (FYI -tari is sometimes -dari depending which verb it follows).

Literal translation: We did things like eating and playing.
It sounds a little awkward in English, but thats the best translation I can give.

Generally the conjugation is used in the format "verb-tari, verb-tari shimasu. "

Without the -tari conjugations, the sentence would be "We ate and played". However, using the -tari conjugation, it's like saying 'we did things such as ________', or 'we did things like _________'.

Hope that's not too confusing :D
It's hard to explain some concepts over the internet!

i understand, thanks a lot now it makes sense
:ywave:

It also implies a sense of repetition. I would read the sentence Hatredcopter used in the example as meaning that they ate, played, ate, played and so on. Not just a single event. Sort of a mix of two or more activities.