butt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: bŭt
ipa: /bʌt/
ipa: /bʊt/
rhymes: -ʌt
homophone: but
Forms: form: butts
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
Senses: examples: text: Get up off your butt and get to work.
glosses: 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).
examples: text: I can see your butt.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Get your butt to the car.
text: We can't chat today. I have to get my butt to work before I'm late.
glosses: 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.
glosses: 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.
qualifier: leather trades
examples: text: I walked around, picking butts from the street.
ref: 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 10, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2:
glosses: The waste end of anything.
A used cigarette.
examples: c. 1850-1860, Alexander Mansfield Burrill, A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
The hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.
glosses: The waste end of anything.
A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.
glosses: The waste end of anything.
Hassock.
glosses: The waste end of anything.
A crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.
synonyms: boot
heel
examples: text: She was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun.
qualifier: generally
glosses: 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.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lacrosse
lifestyle
sports
qualifier: generally
glosses: 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.
qualifier: generally
glosses: 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.
qualifier: generally
glosses: 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.
topics: engineering
mechanical
mechanical-engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
qualifier: generally
glosses: 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.
synonyms: butt joint
topics: business
carpentry
construction
manufacturing
qualifier: generally
glosses: 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.
topics: business
manufacturing
shipbuilding
qualifier: generally
glosses: An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
The joint where two planks in a strake meet.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 231:
qualifier: generally
glosses: 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.
examples: text: […] when the sun gets round to the butt of the wind, the change, if any is coming, is then to be expected.
ref: 1865, Arthur Kavanagh, The Cruise of the R.Y.S. Eva, page 62:
text: […] '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[…]
ref: 2013 April 16, G. W. Maunsell, The Fisherman's Vade Mecum - A Compendium of Precepts, Counsel, Knowledge and Experience in Most Matters Pertaining to Fishing for Trout, Sea Trout, S, Read Books Ltd, →ISBN:
topics: nautical
transport
qualifier: generally
glosses: An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
The direction from which the wind blows.
examples: text: Here is my journey's end, here is my butt / And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], line 267:
glosses: A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
examples: text: To which is fixed, as an aim or butt[…]
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 186:
text: 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.
ref: 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 37:
text: The groom his fellow groom at butts defies, / And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
A mark to be shot at; a target.
examples: text: He's usually the butt of their jokes.
text: I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart.
ref: 1711 October 1 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, September 20, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 175; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1876, Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb, Annals of Tacitus., translation of original by Cornelius Tacitus, page 300:
glosses: A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
A person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed.
synonyms: laughing stock
raw_tags: as "butt of (a) joke"
glosses: 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.