# butt

Pronunciation: say "BUT" /bʌt/

## Noun

1. Informal word for the buttocks, a person's bottom, and sometimes for the anus. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: An informal word for the part of your body you sit on.
   - _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._
2. The end left after a cigarette or cigar has been smoked, or any leftover end of something.
   - Simple: The end of a cigarette or cigar left after smoking it, 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._
3. The rear end of a firearm, opposite the muzzle from which the bullet leaves.
   - Simple: The thick back end of a gun, opposite the end the bullet comes out of.
   - _She steadied the butt against her shoulder before firing._
   - _The rifle's butt was carved from polished walnut._
4. A person's self or body, used informally to stand for the whole person. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A person's whole self, named in a joking, casual way.
   - _She hauled her butt across town to make the meeting on time._
   - _Get your butt over here and look at what I found._
5. A person who is the target of ridicule, jokes, or contempt.
   - Simple: A person that others make fun of.
   - _The new intern quickly became the butt of office humor._
   - _Her clumsy entrance made her the butt of the whole team's teasing._
7. The thicker or blunt end of something, such as a tool, an axe head or a fishing rod.
   - Simple: The thick or blunt end of something, like a tool 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._
9. A cut of meat from the upper shoulder of an animal, especially the part of a pig's shoulder lying above the picnic cut.
   - Simple: A cut of meat from the upper shoulder of an animal, especially a pig.
   - _He smoked a pork butt for twelve hours until it pulled apart easily._
   - _The butcher trimmed the butt before tying it for roasting._
10. A joint where the ends of two pieces meet squarely without overlapping, as where planks meet in a ship's hull.
   - Simple: A place where the ends of two pieces of wood or metal are joined flat against each other.
   - _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._
11. A push, thrust, or sudden blow given with the head.
   - Simple: A push or hit made 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._
12. The crusty heel at either end of a bread loaf. *(US)*
   - Simple: The hard end slice of a loaf of bread.
   - _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._
13. A 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.
   - Simple: A very large barrel for wine, beer or rainwater, or an old measure of liquid, 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._
14. A door hinge attached to the inner edge of the door, where it meets the frame, rather than across its face like a strap hinge.
   - Simple: A type of door hinge fixed to the inner edge of a door.
   - _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._
16. A target set up to be shot at, as in archery or rifle practice.
   - Simple: A target that people aim at when shooting.
   - _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._

## Verb

6. To strike something bluntly, especially with the head.
   - Simple: To hit something hard, usually with the head.
   - _Rams butt each other repeatedly to establish dominance._
   - _The bull butted the gate until the latch finally broke._
8. To join or meet at the end or edge; to be next to and touching; to abut.
   - Simple: To meet or touch end to end with something right next to it.
   - _The new wing butts against the original building at an awkward angle._
   - _Several lots butt onto the shared alley behind the houses._
15. To move into a line ahead of someone who was already waiting. *(dialectal, Canada, Eastern)*
   - Simple: To push into a line in front of people who were 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._

## Noun

17. The quarter of the horizon that a wind is blowing out of. *(dated)*
   - Simple: The direction the wind is coming from.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A friend or close companion.
- (noun) A flatfish of any of various kinds, including the sole, plaice, and turbot.
- (noun) The part of a half-coupling that is fastened to the end of a hose.
- (noun) The end of a connecting rod or similar piece, to which the boxing is fastened by the strap, cotter, and gib.
- (noun) The thickest and toughest part of a tanned oxhide, used for boot soles, harnesses, and trunks.
- (noun) A thrust delivered with the weapon in fencing.
- (noun) A limit or boundary; the extreme end, point, or goal toward which something moves.
- (noun) The hut or shelter used by the person who tends the targets during rifle practice.
- (noun) The unplowed piece of ground remaining at the end of a field after plowing.
- (noun) A hassock, a firm padded cushion for kneeling on or resting the feet.
- (noun) On a lacrosse stick, a rubber or plastic end cap that covers the hollow handle end so it is less likely to hurt anyone.
- (noun) A sturdy cart with two wheels, used on farms for hauling heavy loads.
- (noun) A small hand cart with three wheels, built much like a wheelbarrow.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–5, 7–8, 10, 12, 14, 16–17** — 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.
**Meanings 6, 11, 15** — 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.
**Meaning 13** — 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'.
**Meaning 9** — 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.

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