strut
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
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”)).
Inflected forms:
form: struts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: strutting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: strut
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: strut
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: strut
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: struttest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: struttedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: struts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: strutteth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: strut
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: strut
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: strut
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: strutting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: strutted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: struts
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Of a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with the tail erect and spread out.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Hark, hark, I heare, the ſtraine of ſtrutting Chanticlere cry cockadidle-dowe.
The pheasant strutteth about in the midst of flowers; / The turtle-dove cooeth, and the nightingale warbleth from the cypress.
He thought that whenne Thanksgyving came he'd looke soe payle & thynne, / He colde avoid ye usual role ye Turkye strutteth inne.
The pond was another favourite place to visit. Moorhens strutted from the neighbouring bushes, and a bevy of Muscovy ducks, a study in black, white and red, waddled from the farmyard hard by to enjoy a refreshing splash.
gloss: To walk haughtily or proudly with one's head held high.
pos: verb
tags: also
broadly
figuratively
intransitive
examples: He strutted about the yard, thinking himself master of all he surveyed.
[O]h, I ſhould remember him: do's he not hold vp his head (as it were?) and ſtrut in his gate?
[...] I trow it is enough to make a man forswear the very mother that bore him, and to wish that he had never had one, when one is cooped up in a gloomy hole like this, to watch a door within which strutteth a jackanapes too proud to speak civil to those that approach him.
"With Mosaic cheers unglutted, / Stood he in this vast abode; / As thou struttest, so he strutted, / As thou crowest, so he crow'd— / He the well-beloved of Hansard, / Is he kin, sweet bird, to you?" / But the valiant bantam answer'd— / "Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo!"
Hast thou nor shame, nor modesty, nor fear? / That thus thou struttest in the face of God, / Spreading thy peacock's feathers, with their gleam?
"Hilloa, good fellow," quoth he, in a jovial voice, "who art thou that struttest in such gay feathers?"
[...] I recognise the two Miss Boulters, the acknowledged queens of Welby society, each of whom has managed to secure a cavalier for escort; Margaret Watson flounces by with young Boulter, a stout, florid youth with an insinuating eye; Jo and Charlotte strut out together arm in arm with a funny imitation of their elders.
gloss: To walk across or on (a stage or other place) haughtily or proudly.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
transitive
examples: 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.
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.
Still garbed in notions wont to gird / Minds in the reign of George the Third, / He strutteth an embodied tameness / In a sober suit of sameness.
gloss: Often followed by out: to protuberate or stick out due to being full or swollen; to bulge, to swell.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: 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.
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.
The Pow'r appeas'd, with winds ſuffic'd the ſail, / The bellying canvas ſtrutted with the gale; [...]
[T]hey cut the tree where they see the bark to be fullest of liquor, and whereas they perceive it to be thinnest and strut out most. [Quoting Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, book XII, chapter 14.]
gloss: Often followed by out: to cause (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [H]e gains the glitt'ring prize, / And ſtruts the gaudy food of gazing eyes, / A thing—that oft his Footmen may deſpiſe.
gloss: A step or walk done stiffly and with the head held high, often due to haughtiness or pride; affected dignity in walking.
pos: noun
tags: also
figuratively
examples: Putting on his hat, and thrusting both hands into the pockets of his trousers, he marched with a nonchalant strut out of the room, [...]
gloss: An instrument for adjusting the pleats of a ruff.
pos: noun
tags: historical
Related words: strout
Derived words: astrut
bestrut
foot-strut split
outstrut
strutless
strut one's stuff
strutter
struttingly
strutting
strutty
Translations: