Put

Pronunciation

• enPR: po͝ot, IPA: /pÊ°ÊŠt/
• Rhymes: -ÊŠt

From Middle English putten, puten, poten, from Old English *putian, *pūtian ("to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung ("pushing, impulse, instigation, urging")) and potian ("to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad"), both from Proto-Germanic *putōną ("to stick, stab"), from Proto-Indo-European *bud- ("to shoot, sprout"). Compare also related Old English pȳtan ("to push, poke, thrust, put out (the eyes)"). Cognate with Dutch poten ("to set, plant"), Danish putte ("to put"), Swedish putta, pötta, potta ("to strike, knock, push gently, shove, put away"), Norwegian putte ("to set, put"), Norwegian pota ("to poke"), Icelandic pota ("to poke"), Dutch peuteren ("to pick, poke around, dig, fiddle with"), Sanskrit (bunda, "arrow").

Full definition of put

Verb

1. To place something somewhere.
   She put her books on the table.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, Philander went into the next room...and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 20, ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’
2. To bring or set into a certain relation, state or condition.
   Put your house in order!
   He is putting all his energy into this one task.
   She tends to put herself in dangerous situations.
3. (finance) To exercise a put option.
   He got out of his Procter and Gamble bet by putting his shares at 80.
4. To express something in a certain manner.
   When you put it that way, I guess I can see your point.
• HareAll this is ingeniously and ably put.
5. (athletics) To throw a heavy iron ball, as a sport. See shot put. Do not confuse with putt.
6. To steer; to direct one's course; to go.
• John DrydenHis fury thus appeased, he puts to land.
7. To play a card or a hand in the game called put.
8. To attach or attribute; to assign.to put a wrong construction on an act or expression
9. (obsolete) To lay down; to give up; to surrender.
• Wyclif Bible, John xv. 13No man hath more love than this, that a man put his life for his friends.
10. To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention.to put a question; to put a case
• BerkeleyPut the perception and you put the mind.
• MiltonThese verses, originally Greek, were put in Latin.
11. (obsolete) To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige.
• Jonathan SwiftThese wretches put us upon all mischief.
• Sir Walter ScottPut me not to use the carnal weapon in my own defence.
• MiltonThank him who puts me, loath, to this revenge.
12. (mining) To convey coal in the mine, as for example from the working to the tramway.

Derived terms

Noun

1. (business) A right to sell something at a predetermined price.
2. (finance) A contract to sell a security at a set price on or before a certain date.He bought a January '08 put for Procter and Gamble at 80 to hedge his bet.
• Johnson's Cyc.A put and a call may be combined in one instrument, the holder of which may either buy or sell as he chooses at the fixed price.
3. The act of putting; an action; a movement; a thrust; a push.the put of a ball
• L'EstrangeThe stag's was a forc'd put, and a chance rather than a choice.
4. An old card game.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pÊŒt/

Origin unknown. Perhaps related to Welsh pwt.

Noun

1. (obsolete) An idiot; a foolish person.
• BramstonQueer country puts extol Queen Bess's reign.
• F. HarrisonWhat droll puts the citizens seem in it all.
• 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 244:The old put wanted to make a parson of me, but d—n me, thinks I to myself, I'll nick you there, old cull; the devil a smack of your nonsense shall you ever get into me.

Old French pute.

Noun

1. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Anagrams

• tup
• UTP