butt

• (UK, US) enPR: bŭt, IPA^(key): /bʌt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ʌt
• Homophone: but

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-Germanic *buttaz (“end, piece”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudnós (“bottom”), later thematic variant of Proto-Indo-European bʰudmḗn ~ bʰudn-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewb- (“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.

butt (plural butts)

1. (countable) The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end
   1. (Canada, US, slang) The buttocks (used as a euphemism in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass).

      Get up off your butt and get to work.

      1. (slang) The whole buttocks and pelvic region that includes one's private parts.

         I can see your butt.

         When the woman in the dress was sitting with her legs up, I could see up her butt.

      2. (slang, derogatory) Body; self.

         Get your butt to the car.

         We can't chat today. I have to get my butt to work before I'm late.

   2. (leather trades) The thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.
2. (countable) The waste end of anything
   1. (slang) A used cigarette.
   2. A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Burrill

        The hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.

   3. (obsolete, West Country) Hassock.
3. (countable, generally) An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
   1. The end of a firearm opposite to that from which a bullet is fired.

      She was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun.

   2. (lacrosse) The plastic or rubber cap used to cover the open end of a lacrosse stick's shaft in order to reduce injury.
   3. The portion of a half-coupling fastened to the end of a hose.
   4. The end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the boxing is attached by the strap, cotter, and gib.
   5. (mechanical) A joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together without scarfing or chamfering.

      Synonym: butt joint

   6. (carpentry) 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.
   7. (shipbuilding) The joint where two planks in a strake meet.
4. (countable) A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
   • 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act V, Scene II, line 267.

     Here is my journey's end, here is my butt / And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

   1. A mark to be shot at; a target.
      • 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act I, Scene II, line 186.

        To which is fixed, as an aim or butt...

      • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 37.

        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.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

        The groom his fellow groom at butts defies, / And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.

   2. (usually as "butt of (a) joke") A person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed.

      He's usually the butt of their jokes.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Addison

        I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart.

   3. The hut or shelter of the person who attends to the targets in rifle practice.

• "butt" for "buttocks" is considered less vulgar than "arse/ass", but still not as polite as saying bottom or rear end.

butt (third-person singular simple present butts, present participle butting, simple past and past participle butted)

1. To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity; to terminate; to be bounded; to abut.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Drayton

     And Barnsdale there doth butt on Don's well-watered ground.

• butthead, head butt, sackbutt, butt crack
• buttless
• buttload
• buttplate

• (buttocks): callipygian, callipygous, dasypygal

From Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, boter (“to push, butt, strike”), from Old Frankish *bōtan (“to hit, beat”), from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to beat, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰÀud-, *bʰÀu- (“to beat, push, strike”). Cognate with Old English bēatan (“to beat”). More at beat.

butt (third-person singular simple present butts, present participle butting, simple past and past participle butted)

1. (transitive) To strike bluntly, particularly with the head.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir H. Wotton

     Two harmless lambs are butting one the other.

2. (intransitive) To strike bluntly with the head.

   Rams butt at other males during mating season.

• butt heads with
• butt in
• butt up
• buttinsky
• headbutt

butt (plural butts)

1. A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head; a head butt.

   Be careful in the pen, that ram can knock you down with a butt.

   The handcuffed suspect gave the officer a desperate butt in the chest.

2. A thrust in fencing.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Prior

     To prove who gave the fairer butt, / John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.

From Middle English bit, bitte, bytte, butte (“leather bottle”), from Old English bytt, byt and Old French boute (“cask”) and other etymologies on this page.

butt (plural butts)

1. (English units) An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun; equivalent to the pipe.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, p. 205.

     Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons. –

2. A wooden cask for storing wine, usually containing 126 gallons.
   • 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II, Scene II, line 121.

     ...I escap'd upon a butt of sack which the sailors heav'd o'erboard...

From Middle English but, butte, botte (“flounder; plaice; turbot”). Cognate with West Frisian bot, Dutch bot, German Low German Butt, German Butt, Butte, Swedish butta.

• but

butt (plural butts)

1. (Northern England) Any of various flatfish such as sole, plaice or turbot

• halibut

butt (plural butts)

1. (dated, West Country and Ireland) A heavy two-wheeled cart.
2. (dated, West Country and Ireland) A three-wheeled cart resembling a wheelbarrow.

• buttload (possibly)
• butty
• gurry-butt
• ox-butt
• slide-butt

• Wright, Joseph (1898) The English Dialect Dictionary‎, volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 463–465

• butt at OneLook Dictionary Search
• butt in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

From Middle Low German butt, bott.

• IPA^(key): /bʉt/

butt (neuter singular butt, definite singular and plural butte, comparative buttere, indefinite superlative buttest, definite superlative butteste)

1. blunt (not sharp)
2. (vinkel) obtuse (angle between 90 and 180 degrees)

• “butt” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Middle Low German butt, bott.

butt (neuter singular butt, definite singular and plural butte, comparative buttare, indefinite superlative buttast, definite superlative buttaste)

1. blunt (not sharp)
2. (vinkel) obtuse (angle between 90 and 180 degrees)

butt

1. past participle of bu

• “butt” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.