DictionaryAI

ass

AS/æs/

Pluralasses

10 meanings of ass

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  1. 1
    bottom (body)nounslangvulgarUScountable or uncountable
    The rounded, fleshy rear of the body above the legs, on which a person sits.

    He sat on a cold metal bench for two hours, and his ass went completely numb.

    He slipped on the wet floor and landed flat on his ass in front of the whole office.

    UsageUse bottom to be polite. Arse is usual in Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand; most Canadians use ass.

    Similarbutt, bottom, behind, backside, buttocks

    Note

    This is arse in the form used chiefly in North America, and behind both spellings stands an old word: Old English ærs, related to German Arsch.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  2. 2
    yourselfnounslangvulgarUScountable
    A person or the self, especially one's own body; by extension one's personal safety, and figuratively one's job or prospects.

    He finally hauled his lazy ass to the gym for the first time in a year.

    Firefighters put their asses on the line every time they go into a burning building.

    UsageUsually after a possessive: get your lazy ass out of bed, save your ass; it's your ass warns of serious trouble.

    Similarbutt, arse

  3. 3
    veryparticleslangvulgarUS
    Used after an adjective to intensify it; the same as the suffix -ass, written as a separate word.

    They parked a shiny ass pickup truck right in front of the restaurant.

    I waited in a slow ass line at the DMV for three hours.

    UsageGoes between an adjective and its noun: a big ass truck; also written big-ass.

  4. 4
    foolish personnouncountable
    A foolish person, or one who is rude, thoughtless or inconsiderate toward others.

    He made a complete ass of himself at the wedding with a drunken speech about his ex.

    Don't be an ass; let the man finish his sentence.

    UsageCommon in make an ass of yourself and don't be an ass; many hear the ruder sense, so use it among friends.

    Similarfool, idiot, jerk, jackass

    Note

    An insult borrowed from the farmyard: calling someone an ass compares them to the donkey, and Shakespeare's Hamlet hurls it at himself with "What an ass am I?"

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The insult derives from comparison with the donkey. en.wiktionary.org
    • William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. gutenberg.org
    • Hamlet calls himself an ass using the quoted words, here given with modernized spelling. gutenberg.org
  5. 5
    donkeynouncountable
    Any of several horse-like species, especially Equus asinus, the donkey, whose domesticated animals serve as beasts of burden.

    An ass laden with olive baskets plodded up the narrow mountain path.

    Wild asses roam the dry plains in small, scattered herds.

    UsageDonkey is the everyday word; many listeners hear the rude sense in ass.

    Similardonkey

    Note

    An animal name that reached English by a long road: Old English assa was back-formed from assen, "she-ass", which came from Latin, probably through Celtic. It displaced an older word, esol, that Germanic had also borrowed from Latin. In older English the ass comes laden: with bread in the King James Bible of 1611, with wood in Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843).

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

  6. 6
    rear openingnounslangvulgarUScountable or uncountable
    The opening at the lower end of the digestive tract through which solid waste leaves the body.

    After the colonoscopy prep, my ass was sore for two days.

    Those hot wings burned going in and burned even worse coming out of my ass.

    Similararse, butt, asshole

    Note

    Prepositions tell this sense apart from the buttocks: up and out of point to the anus, as in Burroughs's Naked Lunch or South Park's "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" (1997), with its things "going in or coming out of my ass." In alone is no guide, since a kick in the ass lands on the buttocks. The word is vulgar and graphic, at home only in frank or deliberately crude talk.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

  7. 7
    sexnounslangvulgarUSuncountable
    Sex, or a person seen as a sexual partner, with vulgar emphasis on the body rather than the person.

    All he cared about on spring break was getting some ass.

    She was tired of being treated as a piece of ass by men who never asked her name.

    UsageMostly in get some ass and a piece of ass; deeply demeaning to the person meant.

    Similarsex, tail, pussy

    Note

    Joni Mitchell's "Blue" (1971) sets it beside acid and booze. Reducing a person to a body is the point, and the reason it offends.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  8. 8
    poor qualityadjectiveslangvulgarUS
    Bad or of poor quality, used especially of a person's skill or performance.

    The food at that new place is ass, and the service is even worse.

    He talks a big game online, but in ranked matches he's straight ass.

    Similargarbage, terrible, awful, lousy

    Oppositegood, great

    Note

    The adjective is at home in sports trash talk: a quarterback is called ass, and Kyler Murray tells another player "You're so ass" in 2021.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Kyler Murray is quoted saying “You're so ass” to another player in 2021. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

  1. 9
    poor qualitynounslangvulgarUSuncountable
    Used in similes, typically after like, to describe something as bad or unpleasant.

    The band sounded like ass at sound check, but they pulled it together for the show.

    After three days of camping without a shower, we all looked like ass.

    UsageNo article: smells like ass, feel like ass; act like an ass, with an, means behave like a fool.

    Similarcrap, shit, garbage, hell

  2. 10
    nounobsolete
    A compositor, the worker in a printing house who sets the type for each page.
    Sometimes by way of joke, and sometimes by way of irritation, compositors are called Asses by the pressmen.
    [1841, William Savage, Dictionary of the Art of Printing

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 4–5

From Middle English asse, from Old English assa, which was back-formed from assen ("she-ass") and came from Celtic (compare Old Irish asan, Old Cornish asen), ultimately from Latin asinus. It displaced Old English esol, from Proto-West Germanic *asil, itself borrowed from Latin asellus, a diminutive of asinus. The sense "stupid person" comes from the animal's reputation for stubbornness, which goes back to antiquity (compare Latin asinus, "slow-witted person").

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

Meanings 1–3, 6–9

This is the mainly North American form of arse. It goes back through Middle English ars, ers and Old English ærs, ears to Proto-West Germanic *ars and Proto-Germanic *arsaz, and from there to Proto-Indo-European *h₁órsos. Relatives include Old Frisian ers, Old Norse ars, German Arsch, and Ancient Greek órrhos. Many people think it began as a euphemism, but it did not. The spelling reflects the r sound blending into a following consonant such as s, a habit of nonstandard speech since Middle English that also gave cuss from curse, bust from burst, and passel from parcel.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 13 facts