puts

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of put.

   The coach puts the strongest swimmer in the final leg.

   A careful editor puts the most important point in the first paragraph.

   Note

   Here the -s does real work. Put keeps the same shape in the past tense and past participle, so puts is the one form that adds an ending. That ending pins a sentence to the present with a singular subject. She puts it away can only be present; she put it away is past. A bare put after he, she or it always signals the past.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of put.

   The fund manager purchased several puts as a hedge against the declining index.

   Both puts expire at the end of the month.

   Note

   In modern writing the plural is mostly a trader's word. Put is short for put option, a right to sell at a predetermined price, so one buys puts, holds puts or lets puts expire. Older texts may use puts for eccentric old fellows or for prostitutes, both obsolete senses. The old card game called put is uncountable and takes no plural.

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