bout
Part of speech: noun
verb
prep
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: boxing
entertainment
fencing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
music
politics
sports
war
Etymology: From Middle English bout, bowt, bught (whence also modern English bought (“bend, curve”)), probably from Old English *buht (“bend, turn”), an unrecorded variant of Old English byht (“a bend, curve”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“a bend”). Equivalent to bow + -t. Doublet of bight and bought.
For the sense development compare bender.
Base: bow
Affixes: -t
Inflected forms:
form: bouts
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: bouts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bouting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bouted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bouted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant, like an illness.
pos: noun
examples: a bout of drought
a coughing bout
a long bout of the flu
I've boxed in exhibition bouts to entertain the crowds.
The "King" responded well to this treatment and would have maintained 60 m.p.h. up the steepest part had it not been for a brief bout of slipping, which was quickly corrected by Driver Bailes ("Autumn leaves", he remarked laconically).
Jackson won lasting fame for his treatment of an alcoholic's painful disintegration in his first novel, The Lost Weekend, in which he suggested that the root of his protagonist's bouts with the bottle could be found in his repressed homosexuality.
Pope Francis was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital on Friday, February 14, 2025, after suffering from a bout of bronchitis for several days.
gloss: A boxing match.
pos: noun
examples: An Italian boxer abandoned her bout at the Paris Olympics after only 46 seconds on Thursday, refusing to continue after taking a heavy punch from an Algerian opponent who had been disqualified from last year’s world championships over questions about her eligibility to compete in women’s sports.
gloss: An assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
pos: noun
gloss: A roller derby match.
pos: noun
gloss: A fighting competition.
pos: noun
examples: Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.
gloss: A bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
pos: noun
gloss: The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: The outside bout of each land is ploughed two inches deeper, and from thence the water runs into cross furrows, which are dug with a spade […] I have an instrument of great power, called a scarifier, for this purpose. It is drawn by four horses, and completely prepares the land for the seed at each bout.
It is in this manner that the ploughs are reversed at the termination of each bout of the field.
The last two rounds must be ploughed shallower, and on the last bout the strip left should be one furrow width for a two-furrow plough, two for a three-furrow, and so on. […]
gloss: To contest a bout.
pos: verb
gloss: Apheretic form of about.
pos: prep
tags: colloquial
examples: They're talking bout you!
Maddy is bout to get beat up!
Derived words: boutfit
interbout
Translations: