butts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of butt.

   The cleaners collected hundreds of cigarette butts from beneath the stadium seats.

   Archers loosed their arrows at the straw butts set up across the field.

   Note

   One spelling covers several unrelated plurals: cigarette butts, the thick oxhide butts cut for boot soles and harness, and the unplowed butts left at the end of a field. In the slang sense, used in the US, Canada, Cumbria and the Philippines, a butt is the whole rear, so butts usually means more than one person's. The word is milder than arse or ass, which is why it softens idiomatic oaths.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of butt.

   The young ram butts the gatepost whenever he grows restless.

   The new development butts against protected wetlands along its eastern edge.

   Note

   Behind this verb form are three distinct actions. A ram butts the gatepost by striking with its head. One plot of land butts against another by meeting it end to end, the same idea as abut. In Eastern Canada, someone who butts cuts into a line ahead of others. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, so the sentence's grammar tells you which one you are reading.

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