butt
Pluralbutts
Pluralbutts
- 1Informal word for the buttocks, a person's bottom, and sometimes for the anus.
She told the kids to park their butts on the couch and stay quiet.
After three hours on the hard stadium bleachers, my butt was completely numb.
UsageMilder than ass or arse, but still casual: get off your butt. Bottom is the polite word.
- 2The end left after a cigarette or cigar has been smoked, or any leftover end of something.
He stubbed out the butt and immediately lit another.
By the end of the cleanup, the volunteers had collected two full buckets of cigarette butts from under the boardwalk.
UsageUsually cigarette butt or cigar butt; you stub out a butt.
Note
An everyday word that comes from butt as the waste end of anything, what is left when the useful part is gone. Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) has its narrator walking around picking butts from the street, and the word sits naturally in the compound cigarette butt. The same idea of a leftover end runs through the bread and field senses.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The cigarette-remnant sense belongs to butt meaning a waste end. en.wiktionary.org
- Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road, first published in 1957. whitmorerarebooks.cdn.bibliopolis.com
- The novel's narrator is Sal Paradise. en.wikipedia.org
- The narrator describes walking around collecting cigarette remnants from the street. en.wiktionary.org
- 3The rear end of a firearm, opposite the muzzle from which the bullet leaves.
She steadied the butt against her shoulder before firing.
The rifle's butt was carved from polished walnut.
Similarstock
Oppositemuzzle
Note
The end of a gun that is not meant to fire, and so the end that comes into play when a gun becomes a club, as in being hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun. It is a good example of butt as one end set against the other: here the opposite of the muzzle. Rifle butt and shotgun butt are the natural compounds.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The butt is the end of a firearm opposite the muzzle, where projectiles exit. en.wiktionary.org
- A gun's butt can be used to strike someone when the gun serves as a club. en.wikipedia.org
- The muzzle is the opposite end, through which projectiles leave. tpwd.texas.gov
- 4A person's self or body, used informally to stand for the whole person.
She hauled her butt across town to make the meeting on time.
Get your butt over here and look at what I found.
UsageWith a possessive and a verb of motion: get your butt over here, haul my butt to work.
- 5A person who is the target of ridicule, jokes, or contempt.
The new intern quickly became the butt of office humor.
Her clumsy entrance made her the butt of the whole team's teasing.
UsageMostly the butt of something: the butt of the joke, the butt of their teasing.
Similartarget, object, victim, laughingstock
Note
The target turned on people: the one at whom the jokes are aimed. A Spectator correspondent in 1711 "played a sentence or two at my butt", and Church and Brodribb's Tacitus (1876) describes a man "originally introduced as a butt". Laughing stock is close, but butt keeps the sense of something aimed at.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The quotation was published in 1711. gutenberg.org
- The passage contains the quoted wording. gutenberg.org
- Church and Brodribb's translation of Tacitus's Annals was published in 1876. books.google.com
- Their translation describes a man as originally introduced as a butt. en.wikisource.org
- 6To strike something bluntly, especially with the head.
Rams butt each other repeatedly to establish dominance.
The bull butted the gate until the latch finally broke.
UsageSet phrase: butt heads with someone, meaning clash or argue.
Similarram, bunt, bump, charge
Note
The second butt has its own history. It comes from Middle English butten and Anglo-Norman buter, "to push, strike", and behind that from a Frankish word for hitting that shares its root with English beat. Transitively it takes the thing struck, or each other: a poem found among Henry Wotton's papers and printed in 1651, twelve years after his death, has two harmless lambs butting one the other.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- The striking sense derives from Middle English butten through Anglo-Norman buter, meaning to push or strike, ultimately from Frankish. en.wiktionary.org
- The Frankish source is related to English beat. en.wiktionary.org
- The poem was included among poems found among Henry Wotton's papers. archive.org
- The poem was first published in 1651 in Reliquiae Wottonianae. celm.folger.edu
- The publication year was twelve calendar years after Wotton's death in 1639. en.wikipedia.org
- The poem describes two harmless lambs butting one another, using the wording one the other. en.wiktionary.org
- 7The thicker or blunt end of something, such as a tool, an axe head or a fishing rod.
She braced the butt of the fishing rod against her hip and reeled in slowly.
Loggers stacked the trunks with all their butts facing the road and the thin tops pointing back into the woods.
Note
Here the word stays nearest its root, Germanic *buttaz, "end" or "piece"; an Old English diminutive of it, buttuc, became buttock. The thick end is often named against a thin one: the butt and the tip of a rod, the butt and the top of a felled trunk. A blunt end can also be opposed to a sharp one. The flatfish may be named from here too, as the blunt-headed fish.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The end sense descends from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, meaning 'end' or 'piece'. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English buttuc was a diminutive ancestral to buttock. en.wiktionary.org
- A butt can contrast with a sharp end rather than a narrower one. Axe terminology provides examples in which the blade is broader than the butt or haft end. archaeopress.com
- The flatfish name may derive from the blunt-end sense, meaning 'blunt-headed fish'. en.wiktionary.org
- 8To join or meet at the end or edge; to be next to and touching; to abut.
The new wing butts against the original building at an awkward angle.
Several lots butt onto the shared alley behind the houses.
UsageUsually with against, onto or on: the lot butts onto the alley.
Similarabut, adjoin, border, join, meet
Note
A verb of edges and boundaries, built on the old noun for an end or piece of land, and close in sense to abut. Drayton's Poly-Olbion has Barnsdale "butt on" Don's ground, and C. Todd at the Adelaide Observatory in 1878 has a streak "butting on to" a cloud; against and onto serve as well. Despite the spelling, it is a different word from the head-striking verb, which comes through Anglo-Norman buter, "to push."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- The joining or bounding verb belongs to the etymological family of the noun meaning an end or piece of land. en.wiktionary.org
- Michael Drayton wrote Poly-Olbion. poly-olbion.exeter.ac.uk
- Poly-Olbion describes Barnsdale as butting on Don's ground. poly-olbion.exeter.ac.uk
- C. Todd's Adelaide Observatory report was published in 1878. academic.oup.com
- Todd used 'butting on to' of a streak meeting cloud. en.wiktionary.org
- The head-striking verb has a separate etymology through Anglo-Norman buter. en.wiktionary.org
- 9A cut of meat from the upper shoulder of an animal, especially the part of a pig's shoulder lying above the picnic cut.
He smoked a pork butt for twelve hours until it pulled apart easily.
The butcher trimmed the butt before tying it for roasting.
Note
Despite the name, this cut comes from the shoulder, not the rear: the shoulder butt is the upper part, and the picnic lies below it. The name may come from butts, the casks such meat was packed in for shipping, or from butt as the thicker or waste end. Either way, it was apparently once a less-desired cut. Pork butt is now a cut for the smoker, wrapped in foil partway through the cook.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Pork butt comes from the upper shoulder rather than the rear. meat.tamu.edu
- The picnic cut lies below the shoulder butt. en.wikipedia.org
- One proposed origin connects the name with casks used for shipping meat. arnoldzwicky.org
- Another proposed origin connects the name with butt meaning a thicker or waste end. en.wiktionary.org
- Pork butt is smoked using a method that wraps it in foil during cooking. reynoldsbrands.com
- 10A joint where the ends of two pieces meet squarely without overlapping, as where planks meet in a ship's hull.
The shipwright staggered the butts in the hull planking so that no two joints fell on the same frame.
Because a butt joint offers so little gluing surface, cabinetmakers often reinforce it with dowels or biscuits.
Note
An engineer's and joiner's term, more often heard in full as butt joint. What defines it is what is not done: the ends are neither scarfed, cut on a slope to overlap, nor chamfered, bevelled at the edge. They simply meet square. The noun pairs with the verb meaning to abut: two pieces butt against each other, and where they meet is a butt.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- In the specified joint sense, the ends meet squarely without scarfing or chamfering. en.wiktionary.org
- Scarfing joins pieces using opposing sloping ends. en.wikipedia.org
- Chamfering bevels an edge. en.wikipedia.org
- The joint noun corresponds to the action of butting one piece against another. en.wikipedia.org
- 11A push, thrust, or sudden blow given with the head.
The ram lowered its head and knocked the farmer flat with one hard butt.
A single butt from the bull cracked the wooden post.
Similarblow, thrust, push, bump, bunt
Note
The blow itself, often called a head butt in full. A ram can knock a person down with one, and a handcuffed suspect can deliver one to the chest. Barbara Baynton's Human Toll (1907) even gives the word to a buzzing creature trying to get in, and its repeated butts show how far the sense stretches beyond horned heads.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- A butt is a blow delivered with the head, also called a head butt. en.wikipedia.org
- A ram can knock a person down. extension.msstate.edu
- A handcuffed suspect can deliver a butt to someone's chest; this is an illustrative example, not an identified historical incident. en.wiktionary.org
- Barbara Baynton wrote Human Toll, published in 1907. apfa.esrc.unimelb.edu.au
- Human Toll describes a buzzing creature making repeated butts in an attempt to enter. gutenberg.net.au
Less common meanings
- 12The crusty heel at either end of a bread loaf.
He saved the butt for making breadcrumbs later in the week.
Nobody in our house will eat the butts of the loaf, so I save them for breadcrumbs.
Similarheel
Note
The crusty end slice of a loaf, one more case of butt as the leftover end. It is an American use, and heel and boot name the same piece. Because the word has a better-known meaning, the butt of the loaf is the safer full phrase when the conversation is not already about bread.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Butt denotes a crusty end-piece of a bread loaf in American English. en.wiktionary.org
- Heel names the crusty end-piece of a loaf. en.wiktionary.org
- Boot also names the crusty end-piece of a loaf. en.wiktionary.org
- 13A large cask for wine, beer or other liquids, such as rainwater in a water butt; also an old liquid measure that varied, usually 126 US gallons (about 477 liters) for wine.
A single butt of sherry could supply the inn for months.
The cellar held a dozen butts aging slowly in the dark.
Note
The cask itself, which also gave its name to a measure that varied but for wine was usually 126 US gallons, about 477 liters. It is usually followed by of and the wine. Shakespeare's The Tempest has a shipwrecked man escape "upon a butt of sack which the sailors heav'd o'erboard", and Henry VIII's statute speaks of a butt of Malmsey. If it comes through Vulgar Latin *buttia, as one account holds, it may be a distant doublet of boccia.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Butt denotes a wine cask and a corresponding liquid measure. en.wiktionary.org
- The measure varied; a wine butt usually equalled approximately 126 US gallons, or 477 liters. en.wikipedia.org
- The quotation occurs in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, with the wording given. en.wiktionary.org
- The shipwreck survivor who describes escaping on the cask is Stephano. en.wikisource.org
- A statute from Henry VIII's reign mentions a butt of Malmsey. en.wiktionary.org
- One proposed etymology derives butt ultimately from Vulgar Latin *buttia, making it a doublet of boccia. en.wiktionary.org
- 14A door hinge attached to the inner edge of the door, where it meets the frame, rather than across its face like a strap hinge.
She chiseled a shallow recess in the door's edge so the new brass butt would sit flush, then drove in the hinge screws.
The old doors hung on heavy iron butts.
Note
A carpenter's hinge, usually called a butt hinge in full. The name describes how it sits: fixed to the inside edge of the door, it butts against the casing, where a strap hinge spreads across the door's face. The practical difference is what shows. A butt sits in the gap between door and frame, while a strap is on display.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The hinge's name refers to its attachment at the inside edge of the door and its abutment against the casing. en.wiktionary.org
- A butt hinge is fitted between the door edge and frame and is largely concealed, whereas a strap hinge is fitted across the door's surface. gutenberg.org
- 15To move into a line ahead of someone who was already waiting.
Some kids will butt anyone to get to the front of the line.
She butted in line ahead of the whole crowd at the ticket window.
Similarcut
Note
A schoolyard verb of eastern Canada and parts of the northeastern United States, where "No butting!" is the cry of a lunchroom supervisor. It works with an object or without one: he just butted me, or simply no butting. Elsewhere speakers say cut in line, so outside its home ground the word may be heard as the head-striking verb instead.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- “No butting!” is attested as a cafeteria supervisor’s cry in Dan Chandler’s Bullying in Plain Sight. en.wiktionary.org
- 16A target set up to be shot at, as in archery or rifle practice.
Each archer loosed three arrows at the distant butt.
At the far end of the field, the club set up a row of straw butts with paper target faces pinned to them.
Note
Archery's word for its mark, carried down from Middle English but, butte, "goal, mark." In the plural it often names the practice ground itself: Dryden's grooms compete "at butts," and Francis Grose records in 1786 that townspeople were ordered to make butts, keep them in repair and shoot at them on holidays. Shakespeare pairs it with aim. From this mark comes the butt of a joke, the person ridicule is aimed at.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The target sense descends from Middle English but, butte, meaning “goal, mark.” en.wiktionary.org
- Dryden depicts grooms competing at archery in his translation of Virgil’s Georgics, Book II; the opened edition spells the word “buts.” gutenberg.org
- Francis Grose’s A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons was published in 1786. archive.org
- Grose reports orders requiring townspeople to construct and maintain butts and practise shooting on holidays. archive.org
- Shakespeare pairs “aim” with “butt” in Henry V, Act I, scene ii, in Canterbury’s speech. gutenberg.org
- The person targeted by ridicule is a figurative development of the target sense, grouped under the same etymology. en.wiktionary.org
- 17The quarter of the horizon that a wind is blowing out of.
Similareye
Note
Weather lore keeps this one: the butt of the wind, almost always in that phrase, is the quarter it comes from. Arthur Kavanagh's The Cruise of the R.Y.S. Eva (1865) watches for the sun getting round to the butt of the wind, and G. W. Maunsell's The Fisherman's Vade Mecum (1933) still reads the sky there for signs the wind will rise or drop. Otherwise it is dated or dialectal.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The butt of the wind is the direction from which it blows. en.wiktionary.org
- Arthur Kavanagh wrote The Cruise of the R.Y.S. Eva, whose first-edition title page is dated 1865. upload.wikimedia.org
- Kavanagh discusses expecting a weather change when the sun reaches the butt of the wind. upload.wikimedia.org
- G. W. Maunsell wrote The Fisherman's Vade Mecum. calmview.derbyshire.gov.uk
- 2013 is a reissue date. The Arthur Ransome Society's catalogue lists first publication as 1933 and an edition from 1948. The first-edition title page was not located, so the fix omits the year. arthur-ransome.org
- Maunsell discusses the sky at the butt of the wind as indicating whether the wind will strengthen or subside. en.wiktionary.org
- 18A friend or close companion.
- 19A flatfish of any of various kinds, including the sole, plaice, and turbot.
- 20The part of a half-coupling that is fastened to the end of a hose.
- 21The end of a connecting rod or similar piece, to which the boxing is fastened by the strap, cotter, and gib.
- 22The thickest and toughest part of a tanned oxhide, used for boot soles, harnesses, and trunks.
- 23A thrust delivered with the weapon in fencing.
To prove who gave the fairer butt, / John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.
1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind” - 24A limit or boundary; the extreme end, point, or goal toward which something moves.
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt / And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice” - 25The hut or shelter used by the person who tends the targets during rifle practice.
- 26The unplowed piece of ground remaining at the end of a field after plowing.
- 27A hassock, a firm padded cushion for kneeling on or resting the feet.
- 28On a lacrosse stick, a rubber or plastic end cap that covers the hollow handle end so it is less likely to hurt anyone.
- 29A sturdy cart with two wheels, used on farms for hauling heavy loads.
- 30A small hand cart with three wheels, built much like a wheelbarrow.
Showing meanings only.
More uses
- butt into interrupt or get involved when you are not wanted
Practice
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Origins
Old English byt and related forms meant "small piece of land" or "end," and they go back to Proto-Germanic *buttaz ("end, piece") and probably, in the end, to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "bottom," perhaps connected to a root for "deep." In Middle English the word was but, butte, meaning "goal, mark, butt of land." Old French but, butte ("mark"), from the same Germanic source, also influenced it, and it may be related to bottom and boot.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Old English byt and related forms meant a small piece of land or an end. gutenberg.org
- These forms descend from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, meaning end or piece. en.wiktionary.org
- A proposed ultimate origin is a Proto-Indo-European form meaning bottom. en.wiktionary.org
- The proposed Proto-Indo-European ancestry may connect with a root meaning deep. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English but and butte meant goal, mark, or butt of land. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French but and butte, meaning mark and ultimately sharing the Germanic source, influenced the English word. en.wiktionary.org
- Butt may be related to bottom and boot. en.wiktionary.org
Middle English butten came through Anglo-Norman buter or boter ("to push, butt, strike"), which was taken from Frankish *bautan ("to hit, beat"), a descendant of Proto-Germanic *bautaną ("to beat, push"). The Proto-Germanic word's earlier history is uncertain. English beat is related.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Middle English butten came from Anglo-Norman buter or boter, meaning “to push, butt, strike”. en.wiktionary.org
- The Anglo-Norman word came from Frankish *bautan, meaning “to hit, beat”. en.wiktionary.org
- Frankish *bautan descended from Proto-Germanic *bautaną, meaning “to beat, push”. en.wiktionary.org
- The earlier history of Proto-Germanic *bautaną is uncertain. en.wiktionary.org
- English beat is etymologically related through the same Proto-Germanic ancestor. en.wiktionary.org
From late Middle English butte ('wine cask'), of disputed origin: probably through Anglo-Norman from Old French bot ('barrel, wine-skin') and Late Latin buttis ('cask'), or else from Old English bytt ('leather bottle'), from Vulgar Latin *buttia. On the second account it is a doublet of 'boccia'.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The cask sense comes from late Middle English butte, meaning 'wine cask', and its earlier origin is disputed. en.wiktionary.org
- The probable route is through Anglo-Norman and Old French bot, meaning 'barrel, wine-skin', from Late Latin buttis, meaning 'cask'. en.wiktionary.org
- An alternative derivation connects butt with Old English bytt, a bottle word ultimately derived from Latin buttia. en.wiktionary.org
- Under the second derivation, butt and boccia are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
This cut apparently started out as a less popular one. It was named either because it was often stored and shipped packed in butts ("casks"), or from butt in the sense of the thicker, larger end of something rather than its narrow or sharp end.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The cut was apparently originally less popular or less desired. en.wiktionary.org
- One proposed origin connects the name with storage and shipment in casks called butts. en.wikipedia.org
- The alternative proposed origin is butt meaning the larger or thicker end, contrasted with the sharp or narrow end. en.wiktionary.org