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rut

nounverbnounverbattested in dialogue

  • //ɹʌt/ [ɹʌʔ]/
  • //ɹʊt//

Sexual desire in any of many mammals, often specific to mating season; the state or season in which this is experienced.

noun

  1. 1

    Sexual desire in any of many mammals, often specific to mating season; the state or season in which this is experienced.

  2. 2

    The noise made by deer during sexual excitement.

    Near-synonyms: grunt, roar

  3. 3

    Roaring, as of waves breaking upon the shore; rote.

  4. 4

    slangIn omegaverse fiction, the intense biological urge of an alpha to mate, typically triggered by proximity to an omega in heat.

    Proximity to an omega in heat can sometimes cause alphas go into rut, an aggressive need for sexual intercourse usually triggered by the scent of an omega in heat.

    All the characters in this story pressure Dean to help Castiel through his rut, and clearly consider Dean’s resistance to be immature and an overreaction.

    Early in Wicked Game, Steve goes into his first-ever rut.

Etymology

From Middle English rutte (noun) and rutten (verb), from Old French rut (“noise, roar, bellowing”), from Latin rugītus, from rugīre (“to roar”).

verb

  1. 1

    To be in the annual rut or mating season.

  2. 2

    To have sexual intercourse.

    “Well, Mayella was raisin‘ this holy racket so I dropped m’load and run as fast as I could but I run into th’ fence, but when I got distangled I run up to th‘ window and I seen—” Mr. Ewell’s face grew scarlet. He stood up and pointed his finger at Tom Robinson. “—I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!”

  3. 3

    rareTo have sexual intercourse with.

    “Alfred,” Ragnar continued scathingly. “All he cares about is rutting girls, which is good![…]”

    VVhat Piety forbids the luſty Ram / Or more ſalacious Goat, to rut their Dam?

  4. 4

    slangTo rub the genitals against something for physical stimulation.

    Near-synonym: hump

    We have just rescued a dog from a shelter; she has a great personality, except the one problem with her is that she ocassionally^([sic]) likes to "rut" against my husband's leg or arm !

    I'd bend over and wait...and wait...and wait... finally turning around to see him rutting against a table leg.

noun

  1. 1

    A furrow, groove, or track worn in the ground, as from the passage of many wheels along a road.

  2. 2

    figurativeA fixed routine, procedure, line of conduct, thought or feeling.

  3. 3

    figurativeA dull routine.

    Dull job, no interests, no dates. He's really in a rut.

    Some people might say my life is in a rut / I'm quite happy with what I got

Etymology

Probably from Middle English route, from Middle French route (“road”), from Old French route. See also rutter.

verb

  1. 1

    To make a furrow.

Forms

plural
ruts
past tense
rutted
past participle
rutted
present participle
rutting
third person singular
ruts
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).