butter
Pluralbutters (some meanings)
Verbbutters, buttering, buttered
Pluralbutters (some meanings)
Formsbutters, buttering, buttered
- 1A soft, fatty food made by churning the cream of milk, usually from cows.
The recipe calls for half a cup of butter.
He melted butter in the pan before adding the eggs.
UsageFor an amount, say some butter or a piece of butter. Use butters when talking about different kinds.
- 2A spread similar in texture to dairy butter but made from other foods or oils, named after the food it is made from.
She blended roasted cashews into a smooth, rich butter.
The toast was topped with a thick layer of hazelnut butter.
UsageThe food comes first in the name: peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter.
Note
The word covers three different links to the dairy original. One spread only shares its texture, another is eaten the way butter is eaten, and a third is made to replace it. A nut butter therefore need not be standing in for anything.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A nut butter need not serve as a replacement for dairy butter. en.wikipedia.org
- 3To spread butter onto the surface of something, especially bread.
He buttered the toast while the coffee brewed.
Always butter the pan so the cake doesn't stick.
UsageThe object is the thing you coat: butter the toast, butter the pan. Butter someone up means flatter them.
Similargrease
- 4A soft substance made from plant oils or fats, used in moisturizers, cosmetics, and similar products.
Cocoa butter gives many lotions their rich, smooth feel.
The balm is made with shea butter and a little beeswax.
Note
A trade term from cosmetics, where it is freely countable and formulators speak of butters as a class. Elaine Stavert's Beauty Oils and Butters (2010) lists cocoa, illippe, kokum, mango, murumuru, sal and shea, all taken directly from the plant. Heather A.E. Benson and colleagues (2019) class them as triglycerides. Cocoa butter belongs to both kitchen and bathroom, and context tells you which.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Elaine Stavert wrote the cited work. en.wiktionary.org
- Stavert lists the seven named butters and says they are obtained directly from plants. en.wiktionary.org
- The work attributed to Benson and colleagues classifies butters as triglycerides. en.wiktionary.org
- Cocoa butter has both culinary and personal-care uses. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 5An animal or thing that butts, striking with the head or horns.
Among the herd's goats, the oldest billy was the worst butter.
The farmer told us to stay out of the paddock, since the young bull was a butter that charged anyone headfirst.
Note
A different word that happens to share the spelling: butt plus the agent suffix -er, unrelated to the dairy word. It sits most naturally in compounds. David E. Fastovsky and David B. Weishampel (2005, second edition) write of modern head-butters such as goats and bighorn sheep. The plural butters can belong to either word, so context has to settle which one is meant.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- This butter is formed from butt plus the agent suffix -er and has a separate etymology from dairy butter. en.wiktionary.org
- The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs was first published in 1996. The cited 2005 edition is its second edition; that qualification should be explicit. assets.cambridge.org
- Fastovsky and Weishampel describe goats and bighorn sheep as modern head-butters. en.wiktionary.org
- 6A person who interferes in others' affairs; a busybody who butts in uninvited.
Similarbusybody, meddler, interferer
Note
A homograph with no link to dairy: it is butt plus the agent suffix -er, built the way runner or speaker is. The busybody meaning narrows the literal "one that butts" to someone who butts in on other people's affairs. Because the spelling collides with the food word, only context tells them apart. Where a reader might stumble, busybody is the clearer choice.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- This homograph is formed from butt plus the agent suffix -er, independently of the dairy word. en.wiktionary.org
- Runner has the corresponding verb-plus-agent-suffix structure. en.wiktionary.org
- Speaker has the corresponding verb-plus-agent-suffix structure. en.wiktionary.org
- Butter denotes both something that butts and, more specifically, a busybody who butts in. en.wiktionary.org
- 7In former chemical usage, any of various soft, readily fusible substances, especially certain metal chlorides such as butter of antimony.
Note
Older chemistry named substances by how they looked and handled, so a soft, greasy, low-melting solid was called a butter. The word usually takes an of-phrase naming the element: butter of antimony, butter of arsenic. Butter of antimony is antimony trichloride, an anhydrous metal chloride. Today the term turns up mainly in older texts and in lists of alternative names, where it names a chemical compound and has nothing to do with food.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Older chemical naming used butter to describe a substance's physical consistency. upload.wikimedia.org
- Butter of antimony is a soft solid with a relatively low melting point. en.wikipedia.org
- Butter of arsenic is an established chemical name. en.wikipedia.org
- Butter of antimony denotes anhydrous antimony trichloride. matvoc.nims.go.jp
- The term also appears in modern chemical references, including an ILO/WHO chemical safety card listing butter of antimony. inchem.org
- 8To increase the stakes at every throw of the dice or every successive game.
Note
Old gamblers' slang, now out of use: to butter the stakes was to raise them on every throw or every game, so the risk climbed round after round. A modern reader who meets buttered the stakes in an old text should read it as betting talk, not cookery. In present-day writing, raise the stakes says the same thing safely.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Butter was obsolete gambling slang for increasing the stakes at each throw or game, progressively increasing the amount risked. en.wiktionary.org
- Buttering a bet referred to gambling. gutenberg.org
- 9Something that goes smoothly, looks slick, or impresses, such as a deft move, a clean transition, or a fine performance.
The way the DJ slid from one track into the next was butter.
His crossover dribble is straight butter; defenders never see it coming.
Note
A slang compliment that behaves much like an adjective: it usually follows is or was and goes without an article (the landing was butter). Pure and straight often sit in front of it for extra praise. It praises smoothness, the quality of the dairy spread; in formal writing, smooth or seamless does the same job.
- 10On skis or a snowboard, to balance or spin on the tips or tails so that only one end touches the snow.
- 11A landing so smooth that the aircraft touches down almost imperceptibly.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of butter apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
Ancient Greek βούτῡρον (boútūron, "cow cheese") combined τῡρός (tūrós, "cheese") with βοῦς (boûs, "ox, cow"). Latin borrowed it as būtȳrum, which became Old English butere and then Middle English buter.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Ancient Greek βούτῡρον (boútūron), literally ‘cow cheese’, combined βοῦς (‘ox, cow’) and τῡρός (‘cheese’). en.wiktionary.org
- Latin borrowed the Greek word as būtȳrum. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin būtȳrum became Old English butere, through Proto-West Germanic. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English buter descended from Old English butere. en.wiktionary.org
Formed from butt plus the suffix -er.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Butter, meaning someone or something that butts, is formed from butt plus the suffix -er. en.wiktionary.org