Gutter

Pronunciation

• Uk IPA: /ˈɡʌt.É™/
• US IPA: /ˈɡʌt.Éš/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒtÉ™(ɹ)

Anglo-Norman gotere, from Old French goutiere (French gouttière), ultimately from Latin gutta ("drop")

Full definition of gutter

Noun

1. A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water.
• They a not so clean as they might be, since the water is carried off by only one gutter, in the centre of the street
2. A ditch along the side of a road.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess, ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. â€¦â€™
3. A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough.The gutters must be cleared of leaves a few times a year.
4. A groove down the sides of a bowling lane.
5. A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement.
6. Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.
7. A space between printed columns of text.
8. (philately) An unprinted space between rows of stamps.
9. (British) A drainage channel.
10. The notional locus of things, acts, or events which are distasteful, ill bred or morally questionable.
11. (figuratively) A low, vulgar state.Get your mind out of the gutter.What kind of gutter language is that? I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.

Derived terms

Verb

1. To flow or stream; to form gutters. from late 14th c.
2. (of a candle) To melt away or fail from becoming channeled on one side. from early 18th c.
3. (of a small flame) To flicker as if about to be extinguished.
4. (transitive) To send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins.
5. (transitive) To supply with a gutter or gutters.
6. (transitive) To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.

gut + -er

Noun

1. One who or that which guts.
• 1921, Bernie Babcock, The Coming of the King (page 151)A Galilean Rabbi? When did this Province of diggers in dirt and gutters of fish send forth Rabbis? Thou makest a jest.
• 2013, Don Keith, ‎Shelley Stewart, Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story (page 34)An old, rusty coat hanger made a rudimentary fish-gutter.----