Butt
Pronunciation
- enPR: bÅt, IPA: /bÊŒt/
- Rhymes: -ÊŒt
- Homophones: but
Origin 1
From Middle English but, butte ("goal, mark, butt of land"), from Old English byt, bytt ("small piece of land") and *butt (attested in diminutive buttuc ("end, small piece of land") >
English buttock), from Proto-Germanic *butaz, *buttaz ("end, piece"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudnó-, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰaud-, *bʰed-, *bʰau- ("to beat, push"). Cognate with Norwegian butt ("stump, block"), Icelandic bútur ("piece, fragment"), Low German butt ("blunt, clumsy"). Influenced by Old French but, butte ("but, mark"), ultimately from the same source. Related to beat, boot.
Full definition of butt
Noun
butt
(plural butts)- (slang) The buttocks. used as a euphemism; less objectionable than arse/assGet up off your butt and get to work.
- (slang) The whole buttocks and pelvic region that includes one's private parts.I can see your butt.When the woman in the dress was sitting with her legs up, I could see up her butt.
- (body,self)(slang, pejorative) Body; self.Get your butt to the car.We can't chat today. I have to get my butt to work before I'm late.
- (slang) A used cigarette.
- The larger or thicker end of anything; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp end; as, the butt of a rifle. Formerly also spelled but.
- A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
- 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act V, Scene II, line 267.Here is my journey's end, here is my butt
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail. - A mark to be shot at; a target.
- 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act I, Scene II, line 186.To which is fixed, as an aim or butt...
- 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 37.The inhabitants of all cities and towns were ordered to make butts, and to keep them in repair, under a penalty of twenty shillings per month, and to exercise themselves in shooting at them on holidays.
- DrydenThe groom his fellow groom at butts defies,
And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes. - A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.
- BurrillThe hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.
- A person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed.He's usually the butt of their jokes.
- AddisonI played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart.
- A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head; a head butt.Be careful in the pen, that ram can knock you down with a butt.The handcuffed suspect gave the officer a desperate butt in the chest.
- A thrust in fencing.
- PriorTo prove who gave the fairer butt,
John shows the chalk on Robert's coat. - (lacrosse) The plastic or rubber cap used to cover the open end of a lacrosse stick's shaft in order to reduce injury.
- The portion of a half-coupling fastened to the end of a hose.
- The end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the boxing is attached by the strap, cotter, and gib.
- (mechanical) A joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together without scarfing or chamfering; – also called a butt joint.
- (carpentry) A kind of hinge used in hanging doors, etc., so named because it is attached to the inside edge of the door and butts against the casing, instead of on its face, like the strap hinge; also called butt hinge.
- (shipbuilding) The joint where two planks in a strake meet.
- (leather trades) The thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.
- The hut or shelter of the person who attends to the targets in rifle practice.
- (English units) An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun; equivalent to the pipe.
- 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, p. 205.Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons. –
- A wooden cask for storing wine, usually containing 126 gallons.
- 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II, Scene II, line 121....I escap'd upon a butt of sack which the sailors heav'd o'erboard...
- Any of various flatfish such as sole, plaice or turbot
- (obsolete, West of England) hassock.
Origin 2
From Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, boter ("to push, butt, strike"), from Old Frankish *bÅtan ("to hit, beat"), from Proto-Germanic *bautanÄ… ("to beat, push"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰÀud-, *bʰÀu- ("to beat, push, strike"). Cognate with Old English bÄ“atan ("to beat"). More at beat.