Word: strut Part of Speech: verb Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English strouten, struten (“to bulge, swell; to protrude, stick out; to bluster, threaten; to object forcefully; to create a disturbance; to fight; to display one's clothes in a proud or vain manner”) [and other forms], from Old English strūtian (“to project out; stand out stiffly; to exert oneself, struggle”), from Proto-Germanic *strūtōną, *strūtijaną (“to be puffed up, swell”), from Proto-Indo-European *streudʰ- (“rigid, stiff”), from *(s)ter- (“firm; strong; rigid, stiff”). The English word is cognate with Danish strutte (“to bulge, bristle”), Low German strutt (“stiff”), Middle High German striuzen (“to bristle; to ruffle”) (modern German strotzen (“to bristle up”), sträußen (obsolete, except in Alemannic)); and compare Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌿𐍄𐍃𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌻 (þrutsfill, “leprosy”), Old Norse þrútinn (“swollen”). The noun is derived from the verb. Noun sense 2 (“instrument for adjusting the pleats of a ruff”) appears to be due to a misreading of a 16th-century work which used the word stroout (strouted (“caused (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell; strutted”)). Pronunciation: /stɹʌt/, [stɹɐt], [stɹʊ̈t], /stɹət/, /stɹʊt/ 1. Of a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with the tail erect and spread out. Labels: intransitive Example: Hark, hark, I heare, the ſtraine of ſtrutting Chanticlere cry cockadidle-dowe. Example: The pheasant strutteth about in the midst of flowers; / The turtle-dove cooeth, and the nightingale warbleth from the cypress. 2. To walk haughtily or proudly with one's head held high. Labels: also, broadly, figuratively, intransitive Example: He strutted about the yard, thinking himself master of all he surveyed. Example: [O]h, I ſhould remember him: do's he not hold vp his head (as it were?) and ſtrut in his gate? 3. To walk across or on (a stage or other place) haughtily or proudly. Labels: broadly, transitive Example: Taking you and your colleagues as the model of modern times, I should almost fear that the John Bull of former days was as different from the John Bull of the present time, as is a broad-shouldered, fearless Highlandman from the dapper cockney who struts the Park by the side of his fellow-milliner. Example: The frantic father struts the stage, / And swells with true sublimity of rage / Against his son, who leads a wanton life, / And scorns the offer of a dowried wife. 4. Often followed by out: to protuberate or stick out due to being full or swollen; to bulge, to swell. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: Sometimes [the clitoris] groweth to such a length that it hangeth without the cleft like a mans member, especially when it is fretted with the touch of the cloaths, and so strutteth and groweth to a rigiditie as doth the yarde [penis] of a man. Example: If the right breaſt ſwell and ſtrut out the Boy is well, if it flag it is a ſign of miſcarriage, judge the ſame of the Girle by the left breaſt, when it is ſunk, or round and hard, the firſt ſignifies abortion to be near, the other health and ſafety both of the Mother and the Child. 5. Often followed by out: to cause (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: [H]e gains the glitt'ring prize, / And ſtruts the gaudy food of gazing eyes, / A thing—that oft his Footmen may deſpiſe.