# ass

Pronunciation: US say "AS" /æs/; UK

## Noun

1. The rounded, fleshy rear of the body above the legs, on which a person sits. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: The soft part at the back of the body that you sit on.
   - _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._
2. A person or the self, especially one's own body; by extension one's personal safety, and figuratively one's job or prospects. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: You or another person, especially your body, and also your safety or your job.
   - _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._
4. A foolish person, or one who is rude, thoughtless or inconsiderate toward others.
   - Simple: A silly or stupid person, or someone who is rude to other people.
   - _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._
5. Any of several horse-like species, especially Equus asinus, the donkey, whose domesticated animals serve as beasts of burden.
   - Simple: A donkey or a similar animal that looks like a horse. Tame ones carry heavy loads.
   - _An ass laden with olive baskets plodded up the narrow mountain path._
   - _Wild asses roam the dry plains in small, scattered herds._
6. The opening at the lower end of the digestive tract through which solid waste leaves the body. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: The opening at the back of the body where solid waste comes out.
   - _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._
7. Sex, or a person seen as a sexual partner, with vulgar emphasis on the body rather than the person. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: Sex, or a person thought of only as a body to have sex with.
   - _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._
9. Used in similes, typically after like, to describe something as bad or unpleasant. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: Used after like to say that something is bad or not nice.
   - _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._

## Particle

3. Used after an adjective to intensify it; the same as the suffix -ass, written as a separate word. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: Added after a describing word to make its meaning much stronger.
   - _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._

## Adjective

8. Bad or of poor quality, used especially of a person's skill or performance. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: Really bad, or of low quality.
   - _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._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A compositor, the worker in a printing house who sets the type for each page.

## Origin

**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").
**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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ass (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).