guts

Formsgutses, gutsing, gutsed

1. 1
   nounplural

   The internal organs contained in the abdomen, especially the intestines and other entrails.

   The veterinarian examined the animal's guts for signs of disease.

   Spilled fish guts attracted gulls to the dock.

   Similarinnards, insides, entrails, viscera

   Note

   A plural with no singular behind it in this meaning: one speaks of an animal's guts, and the verb agrees in the plural (the guts were spilled on the dock). Its synonyms range from the clinical viscera to the homely innards and insides, with guttings for what is cleaned out. The figurative uses, courage, substance and inner feeling, all extend from this bodily core.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialplural

   Courage and determination, especially the nerve to face something difficult or risky.

   He had the guts to stand up to his boss during the meeting.

   Climbing that cliff without ropes takes serious guts.

   Similarcourage, nerve, bravery, grit, daring

   Oppositecowardice, timidity

   Note

   The belly stands in for bravery here, and guts is the everyday informal word for it. It sits in a few fixed frames: it takes guts to do something, someone has got guts, someone lacks the guts to act. Nerve and pluck are close and equally safe. Balls means much the same but is vulgar, so guts is the word to choose in mixed company.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialplural

   The essential inner components of a machine or system: its core working parts.

   The technician removed the guts of the old radio to salvage parts.

   This software's guts were rewritten from scratch last year.

   Similarcore, essence, heart, gist, substance

   Note

   The working parts inside the casing: the guts of a watch, a radio, a business. It nearly always comes in the frame the guts of plus a noun, and it stretches easily from mechanisms to organizations. Knowing the guts of a business means knowing how things actually get done. Marrow and bowels are its bodily cousins. Compare the "substance" sense, a quality a speech has or lacks rather than parts you could lift out.

4. 4
   nouncolloquialplural

   A person's deepest and most instinctive feelings, felt as a strong inner sense.

   Deep in his guts, he knew the deal would fall apart.

   Trust your guts when a situation feels dangerous.

   Similarinstincts, intuition, heart

   Note

   Feeling is placed in the body here, and the sense lives mostly in one idiom: spill your guts, often with out and to, as in spill your guts out to someone. It means pouring out what you have been holding inside to a listener willing to hear it. The phrase is informal and intimate rather than crude.

5. 5
   nouncolloquialplural

   The real content or substance of something, beyond its surface form.

   The novel has plenty of style but lacks guts.

   Critics praised the documentary for tackling the guts of the issue.

   Similarsubstance, depth, meat, heart, core

6. 6
   noun

   Plural of gut.

   The biologist compared the guts of fish from different rivers.

   Bacteria living in animal guts aid digestion.

   Note

   The regular plural, used wherever gut is one of several: the digestive tracts of many fish, or several narrow passages of water, since gut also names a channel. The same spelling does other work on this page. It is the present-tense verb in he guts the fish, and it is a plural-only noun with no singular behind it in the entrails.

7. 7
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To show courage and determination by pushing through hardship, especially in the combination guts out.

   He guts out the final rounds of the fight on willpower alone.

   She guts out every shift no matter how exhausted she feels.

   Similarendure, weather, brave, survive

   Note

   Courage as action rather than possession: the noun is something you have, and the verb is something you do, usually with out. The object can be the ordeal or the result, as in gutsed out a 6-1 win. The past is gutsed, never gutted, which belongs to the verb of emptying.

8. 8
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of gut.

   He guts and cleans the trout before cooking it over the fire.

   The factory machine guts each chicken in seconds.

   Note

   The present-tense form of a transitive verb, so it nearly always takes an object: a cook guts a trout, a fire guts a building, bad news guts a team. Keep it apart from the separate verb guts, whose own third-person form is gutses. He guts the fish, but he gutses his dinner or gutses out a hard-won result.

9. 9
   verbcolloquialAustraliatransitive

   To eat greedily and in haste, consuming large amounts of food at once.

   She guts a plate of fries faster than anyone at the table.

   The starving hiker guts his sandwich in three bites.

   Similarwolf, gobble, devour, scarf, bolt

   Oppositenibble, savor

   Note

   Australian informal speech turns the noun into a verb for gorging. Because guts is the base form here, it inflects in its own right: she gutses her lunch, they are gutsing the chips, he gutsed the lot. A sentence like he guts a pie therefore belongs to a different verb, the one that means to disembowel.

10. 10
    nounAustraliaNew Zealandplural

    In the gambling game two-up, the central ring within which the spinner operates.

    Players crowded around the guts to watch the pennies fly.

    The ringkeeper cleared the guts before allowing the next spin.

    Note

    An Australian and New Zealand gambling term that exists only in the plural: the spinner works in the guts, never in a gut. The figure is the ring as the game's belly, its center, the same inward image behind the center of a playing field. As a regional term, it is safest to explain when writing for readers outside those two countries.

11. 11
    nouncolloquialplural

    In Australian rules football, the central corridor of the playing field, running between the two goals.

    The midfielder won the ball in the guts and drove it forward.

    Possession through the guts gave the team a clear run at goal.

    Similarcorridor, middle, center

    Note

    Australian rules football uses the word for the middle of the ground: the corridor between the two goals, where contested play is fiercest and clearances from the center bounce are won or lost. Players win the ball in the guts or carry it through the guts, which is the direct, central route toward goal. The register is informal, the talk of players and fans.

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