# donut

Pronunciation: say "DOH-nut" US /ˈdoʊˌnʌt/, UK /ˈdəʊˌnʌt/

## Noun

1. A piece of dough or batter, usually sweetened and flavored, that is deep-fried and often shaped as a ring or as a flattened ball filled with jelly, custard, or cream.
   - Simple: A piece of fried dough, usually sweet, often shaped like a ring or filled with jelly or cream.
   - _She bit into the jelly donut and got powdered sugar all over her shirt._
   - _The bakery on Main Street sells fresh donuts until they run out, often before ten._
2. Any object shaped like a torus: a thick, rounded ring with a hole through its middle.
   - Simple: Any object shaped like a thick ring with a hole in the middle.
   - _Satellite images showed the storm's clouds forming a donut around a clear, calm eye._
   - _The sculptor's courtyard is filled with bronze donuts big enough for children to climb through._
3. A peel-out or skid in a full 360-degree circle, or the circular skid mark it leaves behind.
   - Simple: A spin of a car or other vehicle in a full circle, or the round tire mark it leaves.
   - _The driver celebrated his win by spinning donuts on the infield, smoke pouring from the tires._
   - _By morning, a perfect black donut was burned into the asphalt outside the store._
4. A spare car tire, usually kept in the trunk, that is smaller than a full-sized tire and meant only for temporary use.
   - Simple: A small spare tire in a car that you use only for a short time.
   - _The mechanic warned her not to take the highway with the donut still on._
   - _After the blowout, he bolted on the donut and crept the last few miles home._
5. A ring-shaped hair shaper that helps form hair into a ponytail or bun.
   - Simple: A ring used to help shape hair into a ponytail or a bun.
   - _Dancers often use a donut to get a smooth, round bun that stays in place through rehearsal._
   - _Slide the donut down to the base of the ponytail, then spread the hair evenly over it._
6. A woman's vulva, or by extension her virginity. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A woman's private parts, or the fact that she has never had sex.
   - _Her roommate teased that she would lose her donut before the semester was over._
   - _He made a crude remark about her donut and got a drink thrown in his face._
7. A person who is foolish or stupid; an idiot. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A person who does silly or stupid things.
   - _He called his brother a donut for locking them both out of the house._
   - _Some donut parked across both spaces again._
8. A ring-shaped cushion of the kind typically used by people with hemorrhoids.
   - Simple: A ring-shaped cushion that people with hemorrhoids often sit on.
   - _The nurse suggested a donut to make the long drive home less painful._
   - _He kept a foam donut on his office chair for weeks after the flare-up._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A circular, ring-shaped life raft.
- (noun) A ring-shaped vacuum chamber, from which the air has been pumped out, used in physics equipment.
- (noun) A type of airplane tire, of the wide kind that spreads the aircraft's weight over a larger area of ground.
- (noun) A whole note in written music.

## Origin

An altered form of "doughnut," from "dough" plus "nut," first attested in 1900.

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