butt
nounverbverbnounnounnounnounnounnouncommon in dialogue
- United States//bʌt//
- //bʊt//
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass).
noun
- 1
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass).
Get up off your butt and get to work.
- 2
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass). The whole buttocks and pelvic region that includes one's private parts.
I can see your butt.
- 3
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass). 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.
- 4
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.
- 5
The waste end of anything. A used cigarette.
I walked around, picking butts from the street.
- 6
The waste end of anything. A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.
c. 1850-1860, Alexander Mansfield Burrill, A New Law Dictionary and Glossary The hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.
- 7
obsoleteThe waste end of anything. Hassock.
- 8
The waste end of anything. A crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.
- 9
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The end of a firearm opposite to that from which a bullet is fired.
She was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun.
- 10
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The plastic or rubber cap used to cover the open end of a lacrosse stick's shaft in order to reduce injury.
- 11
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The portion of a half-coupling fastened to the end of a hose.
- 12
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the boxing is attached by the strap, cotter, and gib.
- 13
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. A joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together without scarfing or chamfering.
- 14
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. 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.
- 15
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The joint where two planks in a strake meet.
- 16
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The blunt back part of an axehead or large blade. Also called the poll.
I put out my hand and felt the meat-chopper hanging to the wall. In a flash I was after him. [...] With one last touch of humanity I turned the blade back and struck him with the butt.
- 17
datedAn end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The direction from which the wind blows.
[…] when the sun gets round to the butt of the wind, the change, if any is coming, is then to be expected.
[…] 'the butt' of the wind, the wind will increase or continue. When the sky is light and clear in 'the butt' of the wind, the wind will die away. A strong wind which changes round with the sun E to S to W (clockwise) will die away, and[…]
- 18
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt / And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
- 19
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. A mark to be shot at; a target.
archery butt
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt[…]
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.
The groom his fellow groom at butts defies, / And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.
- 20
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. A person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed.
He's usually the butt of their jokes.
I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart.
The man was one of the most conspicuously infamous sights in the imperial court, bred, as he had been, in a shoemaker's shop, of a deformed person and vulgar wit, originally introduced as a butt.
- 21
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. The hut or shelter of the person who attends to the targets in rifle practice.
- 22
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. The entire ground (range) on which archers' target practice takes place.
archery butt
Etymology
From Middle English but, butte (“goal, mark, butt of land”), from Old English byt, bytt (“small piece of land”) and *butt (attested in diminutive Old English buttuc (“end, small piece of land”) > English buttock), from Proto-West Germanic *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“end, piece”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnós (“bottom”), later thematic variant of Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn ~ *bʰudʰn-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“deep”). 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 Germanic source. Compare also Albanian bythë (“buttocks”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of vessel”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) and Sanskrit बुध्न (budhná, “bottom”), from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Related to bottom, boot. PIE word *bʰudʰmḗn
verb
- 1
To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity; to terminate; to be bounded; to abut.
And Barnsdale there doth butt on Don's well-watered ground.
In the sketch (which is taken about 75 Jovian days after that of the 2nd July) there is shown a dark copper-coloured streak along the southern margin of the south brown belt, butting on to a bluff-headed streak of cumulus cloud which may be the same remarkable bluff head noticed on July 2.
verb
- 1
To strike bluntly, particularly with the head.
Two harmless lambs are butting one the other.
- 2
To strike bluntly with the head.
Rams butt at other males during mating season.
- 3
To cut in line (in front of someone).
Teacher! He just butted me!
Additionally, kids are pinched, fondled, propositioned, and hit; and it all goes unseen amid the general confusion and nonspecific orders from the cafeteria supervisors who are yelling things like, "Keep it down, you people!" "No butting!" "Wait your turn, boys!" All of which sound as though there is law and order, just no actual justice to the victim.
Etymology
From Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, boter (“to push, butt, strike”), from Frankish *bautan (“to hit, beat”), from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to beat, push”). Cognate with Old English bēatan (“to beat”). More at beat.
noun
- 1
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.
Its noise attracted its outside mate, and the child gloried in its buzzing butts to get in.
- 2
A thrust in fencing.
To prove who gave the fairer butt, / John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.
noun
- 1
An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun.
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. –
- 2
A wooden cask for storing wine, usually containing 126 gallons.
[…]I escap'd upon a butt of sack which the sailors heav'd o'erboard[…]
Etymology
From late Middle English bote, but, butte (“wine cask”), of disputed origin. Probably (1) from Anglo-Norman but, from Old French bot (“barrel, wine-skin”), Late Latin buttis (“cask”); (2) alternatively, a later form of Middle English bitte, bit, butte (“leather bottle”), from Old English bytt, byt, from Proto-West Germanic *buttjā, from Vulgar Latin *buttia and thus a doublet of boccia.
noun
- 1
Any of various flatfish such as sole, plaice or turbot.
Etymology
From Middle English but, butte, botte (“flounder; plaice; turbot”), possibly derived from sense 1 (“blunt end”), meaning "blunt-headed fish." Compare Dutch bot and the second element of English halibut. Cognate with West Frisian bot, German Low German Butt, German Butt, Butte, Swedish butta.
noun
- 1
datedA heavy two-wheeled cart.
- 2
datedA three-wheeled cart resembling a wheelbarrow.
Etymology
Variant of putt.
noun
- 1
The shoulder of an animal, especially the portion above the picnic, as a cut of meat.
Cut the foot off one inch above the joint, as this makes a much neater looking shoulder. The top third of the shoulder that was removed from the “California ham” is known as the shoulder butt. This piece is divided into lean butt ("Boston Butt") and fat butt ("Clear Plate") […] The lean butt makes an excellent roast.
Alternative choices for the shoulder butt oven roast: if you are buying the butt of pork then you must enjoy the flavour that you get only with the fattiet cuts of meat; consequently I suggest the boneless pork loin rib end. Apart from the butt, this wonderful piece of pork has the most fat […]
Wrap the pork butt. Work quickly and purposefully to minimize the time the pork butt is out of the smoker. Place the pork butt in the center of a single 18 x 36-inch piece of foil.
Etymology
Originally apparently a less-desired cut, named either due to its often being packed in butts (“casks”) for storage and shipping, or from the use of butt to refer to "the larger or thicker end of something, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end" or "the waste end".
noun
- 1
Synonym of butty (“a friend or buddy”).
2025, Eleri Griffiths, Woman goes viral after delivery photo catches her in just a towel (BBC News) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2p0n73zmro "He looks up, laughs as he sees the way I'm looking - soaking wet and in a towel - takes a full-blown picture, and just walks off. "I'm like, 'cheers butt'," she added.
Forms
- plural
- butts
- past tense
- butted
- past participle
- butted
- present participle
- butting
- third person singular
- butts
butt · The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in…
Butt · A surname. A surname from English.butter · A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk…Butter · A surname.