| 释义 |
▪ I. butt, n.1|bʌt|
Also 4–6 butte.
[cogn. w. Sw. butta turbot, mod.G. butte, Du. bot, flounder; of obscure origin: perh. from the blunt shape of the head (cf. Da. but stumpy, and butt n.3). See halibut.]
A name applied variously in different places to kinds of flat fish, as sole, fluke, plaice, turbot, etc.
Hence butt-woman, who sells these, a fish-wife.
a1300Havelok 759 He tok..Hering, and the makerel, The butte, the schulle, the thornebake. c1440Promp. Parv. 56 But, fysche, pecten. 1530Palsgr. 202/1 Butte fysshe, plye. 1599Nashe Lent. Stuffe (1871) 79 The plaice and the butt..for their mocking have wry mouths ever since. 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 266 Whilst they [Turbots] be young..they are called Butts. 1776Cowper Corr. (1824) I. 30 Whatever fish are likely..butts, plaice, flounder, or any other. 1886R. C. Leslie Seapainter's Log x. 192 The butt or sole, the turbot, the halibut..all belong to that strange family of fish.
1620Melton Astrolog. 37 Sell their good Fortunes to Oyster-wives and Butte-women for greasie Two-pences.
▪ II. butt, n.2|bʌt|
Also 5–6 butte, 5–6 but.
[app. first adopted in 15th c. (the ME. butte(ü) belongs to bit n.3 of the same ultimate origin); a common Romanic word, F. botte, boute, Sp., Pg. bota, It. botte, late L. butta, buttis cask, wine-skin, of unknown origin: not connected with boot n.3
With ‘butt of malmsey’ cf. It. botte di malvasia.]
1. a. A cask for wine or ale, of capacity varying from 108 to 140 gallons. (Earlier the size was app. much smaller; see quot. 1443; cf. also 1462 in b.) Afterwards also as a measure of capacity = 2 hogsheads, i.e. usually in ale measure 108 gallons, in wine measure 126 gallons; but these standards were not always precisely adhered to.
1443in Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 511/1 [Rhenish 1 butt = 36 gals.]. 1483Act 1 Rich. III, xiii, [The preamble recites that the butt of malmsey formerly held sometimes seven score gallons, and never less than six score; but that through the dishonesty of the merchant strangers it has come to contain ‘scantly five score eight gallons’.] 1500in Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 514/2 [Malmsey 5 butts]. 1513More Hist. Rich. III, Hastely drouned in a Butte of Malmesey. 1593Nashe Christ's T. 32 a, Buts of Sack and Muscadine. 1610Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 126, I escap'd vpon a But of Sacke, which the Saylors heaued o'reboord. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. I, Butt, or Pipe, a Liquid Measure, whereof two Hogsheads make a Butt or Pipe, as two Pipes or Butts make one Tun. 1731Bailey II. Butt, a large Vessel for Liquids, 120 Gallons of Wine. 1836H. Coleridge North. Worthies (1852) I. 22 Did not Joseph Hume graciously receive a butt of cyder?
†b. A cask for fish, fruit, etc., of a capacity varying according to the contents and locality. Obs.
1423Act 2 Hen. VI, [xi.] xiv, Buttes de Samon..serroi⁓ent de..iiijxx & iiij galons pleinement pakkez [transl. Butts of Salmon..should be of..lxxxiv Gallons fully packed]. 1462in Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 315/4 [Salmon (Pershore) 2 pipes at 60/-, 2 butts at 30/-]. 1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. 120, xv. buttes. Schrempes viijd. ijd. 1540Act 32 Hen. VIII, xiv, For a butte of currantes, iiis. iiiid. 1649Thorpe Charge York Assiz. 28 In a Butt of Salmon four⁓score and four gallons. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., A butt of currans is from fifteen to twenty-two hundred weight. 1753Maitland Edinburgh v. 327 For ilk Bale of Madder or Butt of Prunes, 1/-.
c. fig.
1831Galt in Fraser's Mag. II. 708 This single fact speaks more than butts and tons of declamation.
2. In wider sense: A cask, barrel.
1626T. Hawkins Caussin's Holy Crt. 343 He liueth like a But, which doth nothing, but leake, and roule vp, and downe. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 80 To the end which projected overboard, was suspended a water-butt. a1859L. Hunt Rob. Hood ii. xxviii, As in a leathern butt of wine Stuck that arrow with a dump.
3. Comb., chiefly attrib., as butt-beer, butt-cooper, butt-sling; butt-beaker Archæol., a butt-shaped beaker; butt-howel, a howelling-adze used by coopers (Knight Dict. Mech. 1874); butt-keeping a., suitable to be kept in butts; butt-shaped a., shaped like a butt or cask; spec. Archæol. applied to a type of Belgic pottery.
1933Antiquity VII. 29 There are no butt-beakers, no imported Italic wares. 1941Proc. Prehist. Soc. VII. 140 Butt-beaker of sandy, biscuit-coloured ware.
1713Lond. & Countr. Brew. i. (1742) 13 Fine Ales and Butt-beers. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. II. 8 June, Whom he treats with..Calvert's entire butt beer.
1837Whittock Bk. Trades (1842) 161 The Butt-cooper is confined to working for brewers or distillers.
1713Lond. & Countr. Brew. i. (1742) 13 Many thousand Quarterns of this Malt have been..used..for brewing the Butt-keeping Beers.
1916T. May Pottery at Silchester 168 Tall ‘butt-shaped vase’. Ibid., This is a still later development of the ‘butt-shaped’ beaker. 1930― Catal. Rom. Pottery in Colchester & Essex Museum 12 ‘Butt-shaped’ beaker.
1836Fraser's Mag. XIV. 477 A pair of butt-slings, strong enough to have held up the cupola of St. Paul's.
▪ III. butt, n.3|bʌt|
Forms: 5 bott, butte, 5–8 but, 7– butt.
[First appears in 15th c., but must be much older if buttock (13th c.) be a dim. of it. Of obscure etymology: words apparently cognate are ON. butt-r (‘short’ Vigf.; but occurring only as a nickname); Da., LG. but, Du. bot, blunt, short, thickset, stumpy; Sp., Pg. boto blunt, F. bot in pied-bot (club foot). Cf. further ON. bút-r (but-r, Fritzner) log of wood, Sw. but clod, stump, MHG. butze clod, mod.G. butze(n ‘log, piece cut from a tree-trunk’ (Sanders) = sense 2 below, also ‘core of apples, catkin or bud of shrubs and trees’ (Grimm) = sense 4.
F. bout end (OF. also bot, but) is apparently not connected with these words. It has naturally been thought of as the source of the Eng. word, but it does not appear to be recorded in the specific sense of ‘thick end’. But cf. butt n.7]
1. a. The thicker end of anything, esp. of a tool or weapon, the part by which it is held or on which it rests; e.g. the lower end of a spear-shaft, whip-handle, fishing-rod, the broad end of the stock of a gun or pistol.
1470–85Malory Arthur x. ii, Sir Tristram awaked hym with the but of his spere. 1548Hall Chron., 10 Hen. V, 82 Round about the charet rode ccccc men of armes..with the but of their speres vpward. 1814Scott Wav. II. xiii. 205 The pedlar, snatching a musket..bestowed the butt of it..on the head of his late instructor. 1872Baker Nile Tribut. x. 158 My only way of working him [a fish] was to project the butt of the rod in the usual manner. 1873Bennett & Cavendish Billiards 25 The cues should taper gradually from a diameter of two and a half inches at the butt. 1871Kingsley At Last II. xiii. 214 Three eyes in the monkey's face, as the children call it, at the butt of the nut.
b. Angling. to give (a fish when hooked) the butt: to turn the bottom of the rod towards him, so as to get a more rigid hold upon the line; also fig.
1828J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 275 Give her [a fish] the butt—or she is gone for ever. 1835Ibid. XXXVIII. 121 He writes like a man who could give the butt. 1872Baker Nile Tribut. ix. 150 Giving him the butt, I held him by main force.
2. The trunk of a tree, esp. the thickest part just above the root.
1601Holland Pliny xxiv. i. (R.) Trees..prove harder to be hewed..if a man touch them with his hand before hee set the edge of the ax to their butt. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 234 Then in the midst a Column high is rear'd, The But of some fair Tree. 1787Winter Syst. Husb. 103 The tops and buts of ash and oak are more advantageous for burning into charcoal than if sold for firing. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 52 An oak..which squared 15 inches at the butt. 1881Jefferies Wood Magic I. i. 4 A round wooden box..hollowed out from the sawn butt of an elm.
3. A buttock. Chiefly dial. and colloq. in U.S.
c1450Nominale in Wr.-Wülcker 737 Hic lumbus, a bott. c1450Bk. Cookery in Holkham Coll. (1882) 58 Tak Buttes of pork and smyt them to peces. 1486Bk. St. Albans A v, The marow of hogges that is in the bone of the butte of porke. 1601Holland Pliny I. 344 A Lion likewise hath but very little [marrow], to wit, in some few bones of his thighes & buts behind. 1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. 61 Butt..the buttocks. The word is used in the West in such phrases as, ‘I fell on my butt,’ ‘He kick'd my butt’. 1884Harper's Mag. July 299/1 Rump butts, strips, rounds, and canning beef.
4. a. The foot or base of a leaf-stalk; the end or tip of a branch; also Sc. a catkin. [cf. botthe, bud n.1]
1807–10Tannahill in Autobiog. Beggar-boy (1859) 191 Siller saughs wi' downy buts. a1835Cobbett Eng. Gard. (1845) 127 Horse-Radish. The butts of the leaves will grow, if put into the ground. 1870Kingsley in Gd. Words 390/1 It is all jagged with the brown butts of its old fallen leaves.
b. transf. (see quot.)
1862Ansted Channel Isl. ii. ix. (ed. 2) 238 The creature when deprived of food, throwing off part after part, till nothing remains but a little spherical butt.
5. Iron-work. (see quot.)
1831J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 89 The blocks out of which iron anvils are formed..consist of what are known to the trade by the appellation of butts.
6. Comb., as butt-head = butt-end n. q.v.; butt-hole, a blind hole, a cul-de-sac; butt-log (cf. butter5); butt-piece; butt-sheath, a leather case for holding a mounted soldier's carbine.
c1634in Harper's Mag. (1883) Apr. 720/2 One might thrust a pike down to the *butt-head.
1905Westm. Gaz. 3 Mar. 3/2 The old dog's got him [sc. a badger] in a *butt hole.
1879Lumberman's Gaz. 15 Oct., If, in sawing a *butt log, one end of the stick is set out from the standard, our Dog will reach it and hold it firmly in its place.
1863National (U.S.) Bank Act (1882) 21 The Comptroller of the Currency shall cause to be examined, each year, the plates, dies, *but-pieces, etc.
1848W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Years II. 47 Their pistols were in their holsters, and their carbines in the *butt-sheaths.
7. The piece of the inner margin of a single leaf of a book, which projects as a narrow strip beyond the sewing or other fastening when the book is bound.
1921A. Esdaile in Library Dec. 185 The last leaf of B..is a single leaf, whose butt is visible after B. 1.
8. The fag-end of a cigar or of a cigarette.
1847W. H. Gregory Paddiana I. 235 Will yer honor give me the butt? 1888Kipling Departm. Ditties (1890) 106 Like the butt of a dead cigar. 1918Wodehouse Piccadilly Jim i. 5 ‘Smoking cigarettes.’.. ‘There are two butts in the ash-tray.’ 1940Dylan Thomas Portr. Artist 117, I cupped a match..I puffed my last butt. 1958S. Ellin Eighth Circle (1959) ii. v. 62 A litter of used paper cups and cigarette butts.
¶ See also butt n.7, butt n.11
▪ IV. butt, n.4|bʌt|
Also 5 botte, 5–7 butte, 5–9 but.
[a. F. but goal, shooting-target (see Diez s.v. Bozza, and Littré); the cognate butte in early instances is closely associated in meaning (see next).
Cf. the senses of L. meta. Sense 1 may have been influenced by abut and butt v.2]
†I.
1. A terminal point; a boundary-mark, esp. in phr. butts and bounds; a goal; often fig. Obs. exc. dial. and U.S.
From quot. 1592 in butt v.2 1 it appears that a butt was understood to refer to the end of a piece of ground, and a bound to its side.
c1475Bk. Found. St. Barthol. Ch. ii. iii. (1886) 84 We be come for oure synnys to the butte & terme or marke of vniuersale kynde of man. 1557Order of Hospitalls F viij, A Booke of all the Lands and Tenements..of their Buts and boundes. 1572R. H. Lavaterus' Ghostes (1596) 91 The bounds of countries and buts of lands. 1604Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 267 Heere is my journies end, heere is my butt. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil i. v. (1840) 62 The butts and bounds of Parnassus are not yet ascertained. 1838W. Holloway Dict. Provinc. 23 Butts and Bounds, the borders of a person's estate. E. Sussex. 1903McFaul Ike Glidden vii. 44 Have you any documents for reference in order to fix the butts and bounds?
II. A mark for shooting.
2. a. A mark for archery practice; properly a mound or other erection on which the target is set up. Hence in mod. use a mound or embankment in front of which the targets are placed for artillery, musketry, or rifle practice.
For the purposes of archery there were usually two butts, one at each extremity of the range; hence the frequent mention of a pair of butts, and the use of the butts for ‘the archery-ground’ (Jam.).
a1400Octouian 899 Ther na's nother..That myght the ston to hys but bryng. c1440Promp. Parv. 56 But or bertel or bysselle, meta. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 89 An archier to faile of the butte is no wonder, but to hytte the pryke is a greet maistrie. 1526Skelton Magnyf. 297 Ye wante but a wylde flyeng bolte to shote at the buttes. 1620J. Wilkinson Courts Leet 117 There ought to be buts made in every Tything, Village, and Hamlet. 1642Bp. Reynolds Israel's Petit. 13 The arrow sticks in the Butt unto which the marke is fastned. 1678A. Littleton Lat. Dict., A butt, or bank to shoot at, agger. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 773 The Groom his Fellow-Groom at Buts defies. 1857Kingsley Gt. Cities in Misc. (1859) II. 324 There were the butts..where..lads ran and wrestled, and pitched the bar..and practised with the long-bow. 1867Leisure Hour 477 We..see..solid mounds of earth..These are the butts for the rifleman's practice. 1873Act 36 & 37 Vict. lxxvii. §29 Any butt or target belonging to..any naval artillery volunteer corps.
b. transf. and fig. with conscious reference to prec.
1534More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. (1557) 1199/2 Y⊇ proude man..hath no..butte, or pricke vpon erth, wherat he determineth to shoote. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, i. iv. 29 Come bloody Clifford..I am your Butt, and I abide your Shot. 1628Earle Microcosm. iii. (Arb.) 24 Hee shoots all his meditations at one Butt. 1679Establ. Test. 26 The Crown..and..the Church, the two butts against which he levels all the arrows of his poisoned quiver. 1870Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xliv. 14 They were the common butts of every fool's arrow.
c. In grouse-shooting, a position either sunken or on the level ground, protected by a wall or bank of earth behind which the sportsman may stand and fire unobserved by the game.
1885W. S. Stanhope Let. 28 Nov. in Walsingham & Payne-Gallwey Shooting: Moor & Marsh (1886) i. 11, I began to shoot grouse in 1841; we had our regular drives then, but without butts. 1897Encycl. Sport I. 489/2 The butts, or batteries, as they are indifferently called. 1935Encycl. Sports 322/2 A semi-circular, or..almost circular wall of peat or turf, covered with heather..is the usual form of butt. 1955Times 13 May 12/6 The butts all ready set up for the grouse-shooting.
†3. The distance between the two butts; the length of the shooting-range. Also as a measure of distance (cf. bow-shot); in same senses a pair of butts, a butt('s) length, Sc. a butelang. Obs.
1544R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 129 At a short but..y⊇ Pecock fether doth seldome kepe vp y⊇ shaft. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 144 Thy braine lacketh strength To beare a pinte of wine a payre of buttes length. 1600Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) 203 Within tua pair of butelangis to the towne of Perth. 1611Raleigh in Arb. Garner I. 72 When two armies are within a distance of a butt's length. 1696Let. in Aubrey Misc. (1721) 209 E're we were two pair of Butts past the House.
4. a. That towards which one's efforts are directed; an end, aim, object.
1594R. Parsons Confer. Success. i. iv. 66 For enioying of Iustice were Kings appointed..but if they be bound to no iustice at al..then is this end and butte of..al royal authority, vtterly frustrat. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 187 To which is fixed as an ayme or butt, Obedience. 1624Brief Inform. Aff. Palatinate 29 His principall Butt and Marke was..to reuenge himselfe. 1710Norris Chr. Prud. iii. 114 Which he makes the great scope and butt of his Life. 1869Goulburn Purs. Holiness vi. 46 Love is represented..as the mark or butt to which every precept is directed.
†b. A model, pattern. Obs.
1654Gayton Fest. Notes iii. vii. 115 A Fashion to be whistled into a Tailors head without Butts or Patternes.
5. An object at which ridicule, scorn, or abuse, is aimed; from 18th c. often absol., a person who is habitually the object of derisive jokes. (Cf. 1 b).
1616Beaum. & Fl. Cust. Countr. v. i, Let me stand the butt of thy fell malice. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. i. 1443 Oh; make them not the Butt of thy displeasure. 1711Addison Spect. No. 47 ⁋10 A Man is not qualified for a Butt who has not a good deal of Wit and Vivacity..A stupid Butt is only fit for the Conversation of ordinary People. 1833Coleridge Table-t. 16 Aug., He could not make a fool of me, as he did of Godwin and some other of his butts. 1852Gladstone Glean. IV. 128 He was the butt and byword of liberalism. 1880L. Stephen Pope v. 114 A taste for fossils..was at that time regarded as a fair butt for unsparing ridicule.
6. a. attrib. and Comb., as butt-bow, butt-mark, butt-shaft, butt-shot; † butt-bolt, ‘the strong unbarbed arrow used by citizens in shooting at the butt’ (Gifford); butt-garden, an archery ground.
1467Mann. & Househ. Exp. 427 My mastyr paid to Fraykok for iij flytes ij *bottebolts and ij byres, xvij.d. 1623Ford, &c. Witch of Edmonton ii. i, I saw a little devil fly out of her eye like a but-bolt [v.r. bur-bolt].
a1693Urquhart Rabelais iii. li. 415 The *Butt and Rover-bows.
1855Kingsley Westw. Ho x. (1879) 184 What could he do but lounge down to the *butt-garden to show off his fine black coat?
1653Urquhart Rabelais i. xxiii, He..shot at *butt-marks.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. i. ii. 181 Cupids *Butshaft is too hard for Hercules Clubbe. 1884Longm. Mag. Feb. 378 They were thought to be safe from the blind boy's butt-shaft.
1538Leland Itin. I. 96 Another feld a good *But shot of. 1622R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 88 A standing water..neare a butt-shot from the sea shore.
▪ V. butt, n.5 Obs. exc. dial.|bʌt|
[? a. F. butte mound, hillock: a parallel formation to but: see prec. Cf. also butte.]
A hillock, mound.
1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. I. 7 It will not be improper to make a little But or Hillock over those Roots. 1862Barnes Rhymes Dorset Dial. I. 166, I used to hop The emmet-buts, vrom top to top. Ibid. II. 197 [He] broke The nut o' the wheel at a butt. [1877Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Butt-hills.]
▪ VI. butt n.6
[Of uncertain derivation. In med. Anglo-Lat. butta, buttis; Du Cange identifies butta terræ with F. bout de terre. If this be correct, the word is = F. bout ‘end, terminal part, small remaining part’ as in bouts de chandelle ‘candle-ends’. This would make sense 2 the original, but the history is not clear, and it is not impossible that sense 1 should be referred to butt n.5]
1. One of the parallel divisions of a ploughed field contained between two parallel furrows, called also a ‘ridge’, ‘rig’, ‘land’, or ‘selion’.
c1450Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 737 Hic selio..a butt. c1475Ibid. 796 Hec amsages [sic], a but of lond. 1589Wills & Inv. N.C. (1860) 167, I give to..my servantt, thre buttes or rigges of land. 1681Sc. Acts Chas. II (1814) VIII. 295 (Jam.) That other rigg or butt of the samen lyand in the ffield called the Gallowbank. 1885A. N. Palmer Anc. Ten. Marches N. Wales 9 ‘Butts’ are the parallel ridges of land in a ploughed field that lie between the ‘gutters’ or ‘reens’.
†b. ? A measure of land; cf. selion. Obs.
1552Huloet, Butte of a lande, jugus. 1570Levins Manip. 195 A Butte of land, iugerum. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. ii. §32 Smaller parcells according to that quantity of ground it containeth, both for length and breadth..3 Ridges, Butts, Flats, Stitches or small Butts, Pikes.
2. Such a ridge when short of its full length owing to the irregular shape of the boundary of the field. (This may be the original and proper sense.) Jamieson says ‘A piece of ground which in ploughing does not form a proper ridge [i.e. rig], but is excluded as an angle’.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. 39 If it be lasse than a rodde than call it a but. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 137, I had about fifteen or sixteen little short Lands, or Buts. 1787Winter Syst. Husb. 276 A few buts or short ridges, which were planted with a proportion of one bushel to an acre. 1803Rees Cycl., Butt, a provincial term applied to such ridges or portions of arable land as run out short at the sides or other parts of the field. 1883Seebohm Eng. Vill. Comm. 6 Where the strips abruptly meet others, or abut upon a boundary at right angles, they are sometimes called butts.
3. dial. ‘A small piece of ground disjoined in whatever manner from the adjacent lands. In this sense, a small parcel of land is often called ‘the butts’.’ Jam.
1699N. Riding Records iv. 171 Certain closes known as Long Coverdale Close and the Butts thereunto belonging. 1875Whitby Gloss. (E.D.S.) Butts..uneven shaped portions of waste sward. 1881I. of Wight Gloss. (E.D.S.) Butt, a small enclosure of land, as the church butt at Shanklin. [Ibid. Batts, short ridges, odd corners of fields.]
▪ VII. butt, n.7|bʌt|
Also 8 but.
[perh. a. F. bout end, vbl. n. from bouter to push out, project; but possibly a sense of butt n.3, or f. butt v.2 II.]
1. Naut.
a. More fully butt-end, butt-head: The end of a plank or plate in a vessel's side which joins or butts on to the end of the next; the plane of juncture of two such planks, etc.
A vessel is said to ‘start’ or ‘spring’ a butt when a plank is loosened at the end; so a butt is said to ‘start’. ‘butt and butt, a term denoting that the butt ends of two planks come together, but do not overlay each other. hook and butt, the scarphing or laying two ends of planks over each other’; Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 3 Now all those plankes under water..the fore-end is called the Butt-end..if one of those ends should spring, or give way it would be a great troublesome danger to stop such a leake. a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iii. (1704) 345/1 Buts-end. 1644H. Manwayring Sea-man's Dict. s.v., A Butt is properly the end of a plancke, joyning to an other. To spring a Butt, that is, when a planke is loose at one end, and therefore they bolt all the Butt-heads: by Butt-heads, is meant the end of the plancks. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 26 Starting of a But-head in a Ship's side. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Butt [as in Manwayring]. 1783in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. Add. 6 Found a but at the starboard bow to have started, from which the Ship made much water. 1802Naval Chron. VII. 177 A..hoy..sprung a butt end, and foundered. 1859Merc. Mar. Mag. (1860) VII. 15 Some of the paint had cracked at the joining of the butts..amidships. 1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 70 Any place where two outside planks come together are called butt ends. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Butt-heads are the same with butt-ends.
b. Comb. butt-strap, a strip of metal riveted over the joining of two plates in an iron ship, whence butt-strapped a.
1869E. J. Reed Ship-build. ii. 35 The gutter-plate is also strapped by double butt-straps. Ibid. ii. 33 The keel angle-irons..are properly butt-strapped. 1883Nares Constr. Ironclad 3 A strip of iron called a butt-strap is laid over the two ends.
2. The n. (or else the stem of butt v.2) occurs in comb. implying the close contact of two plane ends or edges without overlapping, as in butt-chain (see quot.); butt-hinge, a form of hinge, also in shortened form butt; butt-joint, in Ironwork, a joint in which the pieces to be joined are placed end to end, the juncture forming a plane surface at right angles to the length; so in Carpentry (= butting-joint); butt-joint v. trans., to join with a butt-joint; butt-riveting, riveting in which a butt-strap is used; butt-strip = butt-strap n.; butt-weld n., a butt-joint made by welding; v. trans., to join with a butt-weld (Webster 1909); butt-welded a., joined with a butt-weld; so butt-welding.
1881Mechanic §816 The window must then be attached to the frame by a pair of hinges, 2½ in. or 3 in. common iron butts being the most suitable.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech., Butt-chain (Saddlery), a short chain which reaches from the leather tug to the single-tree, to each of which it is hooked.
1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 199 If each joint be in a plane perpendicular to one of the arrises, the joint is called a butt-joint. 1869Eng. Mech. 19 Mar. 577/1 Mr. Bourne..recommends the butt-joint in boiler construction as opposed to the lap.
1885Spons' Mechanics' Own Bk. 361 There are 3 or 4 ways of butt-jointing curbs. 1904Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 77/2 Butt riveting, a riveted joint where the plates touch at the edge only, and a strip overlaps and is riveted to both of them. Ibid., Butt strip, the strip of plate used to cover a butt joint.
1864Webster s.v. Weld, Butt-weld, or jump-weld. 1944Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CL. 50A The abrupt change in section at the edge of the reinforcement of a butt weld is a serious stress raiser.
1927Glasgow Herald 27 Aug. 12 Butt-welded tubes. 1962B.S.I. News Feb. 10/1 Storage tanks (vertical mild steel welded with butt-welded shells).
1925Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXII. 463 Butt welding and its application to joining wires.
3. a. Coal-min. ‘A surface [of coal] exposed at right-angles to the face’ (Raymond Mining Gloss.).
b. A place where the stratum of rock to be quarried is cut off by other rock.
1900Coal & Metal Miners' Pocket Bk. (ed. 6) 576 The butt of a slate quarry is where the overlying rock comes into contact with an inclined stratum of slate rock.
▪ VIII. † butt, n.8 Obs. exc. in local names, as The Butt of Lewis.
[? f. butt v.1 4, to jut out.]
A headland, promontory.
1598Florio, Capo..a cape or but of any lands end.
▪ IX. butt, n.9|bʌt|
[f. butt v.1; cf. F. botte a thrust in fencing.]
A push or thrust with the head or with the horns of horned animals.
1647H. More Poems 58 The fiercest but of Ram no'te make them [the walls] fall. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 80 [One of the ewes] has selected her own [lamb] and given her a gentle butt. 1869Blackmore Lorna D. xlii. (1879) 261 Then fighting Tom [a sheep] jumped up at once, and made a little butt at Watch.
b. A thrust or stroke in fencing. rare.
a1721Prior Alma i. 199 If disputes arise..To prove who gave the fairer butt, John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.
▪ X. † butt, n.10 Obs.
[? a. F. botte bundle.]
1. ? A bundle, pack.
1598W. Phillips Linschoten's Trav. Ind. (1864) 224 Coming to the things which the elephants are to draw, they bind the But or Packe with a rope that he may feel the weight thereof. 1705Lond. Gaz. No. 4109/4 A But, cont. 75 Pieces of English Dyed Linen, making 1500 Yards.
2. dial. ‘A hassock. Devon’ (Halliwell). Hence butt-woman (see quots.).
1862M. Goodman Exper. Eng. Sister of Mercy 25 The pew-opener or ‘butt-woman’. 1878Free & Open Ch. Advoc. 1 June (D.) A buttwoman is one who cleans the church, and..assists the verger or pew-opener in shewing persons into seats..In the west of England butt is an old word for hassock.
▪ XI. butt, n.11|bʌt|
[Perh. a special use of butt n.3 in sense 1 (the notion of ‘thick end’ being extended into ‘thickest part’), or in sense 3 ‘buttock’.]
The thicker or hinder part of a hide or skin, as horse-butts, calf-butts, kip-butts, shoe-butts; esp. the hide of the back and flanks of an ox or cow reduced to a rough rectangle by ‘rounding’ (see bend n.2 4); the thick leather made from this part; sole-leather.
1661Act 14 Chas. II, 141 Whereas divers Tanners do shave cut and rake..the necks of their backs, and buts, to the great impairing thereof. 1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2124/4 Stolen..about 350 of the best Kids..writ in the Butt of the Skins. 1776Excise-book in Dorset County Chron. (1881) 2 June [Kinds of hides] sheep and lamb, butts and backs, calves and kips. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 202 Butts are generally made from the stoutest and heaviest ox hides. 1886Leeds Mercury 4 Mar., English butts and bends have been quietly dealt in. 1887Daily News 31 Aug. 6/7 (Leather) English butt of stout substance..and heavy English bellies.
▪ XII. butt, n.12 Now dial.
[Origin unknown: cf. buck n.4]
? A kind of basket-net for catching fish. Also, a kind of basket. Cf. putt2.
1533–4Act 25 Hen. VIII, vii, No..person..shal..take..in or by meanes of any wele, butte, net..the yonge frie..of any kinde of salmon. 1556Act 1 Eliz. xvii. §1 Any..Net, Weele, But, Taining, Kepper. 1869J. Jennings Dial. W. Eng. 124 A knaw'd well how ta make buts. 1883F. Seebohm Eng. Village Community 152 These baskets are called putts or butts. 1983Country Life 3 Mar. 538 To the big, bell-shaped hazel kype, with a mouth diameter of 8ft, is joined the 4ft osier butt, a secondary basket of finer weave.
▪ XIII. butt, n.13 dial.|bʌt|
(See quots.)
1796Marshall W. England I. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Butt, a close-bodied cart; as dung-butt..gurry-butt..ox-butt, etc. Butt-load, about six seams. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 125 One-horse carts, or butts, are also generally made use of. 1875Blackmore C. Vaughan xiii. (ed. 3) 44 A vehicle called a ‘butt’..a short and rudely made cart. 1880M. A. Courtney West Cornw. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Butt, a heavy, two-wheeled cart, with timber and yoked oxen.
▪ XIV. butt, n.14 dial.|bʌt|
Also but.
A shoemaker's knife. In full butt-knife.
1847Halliwell, But, a shoemaker's knife. North. 1905Daily Chron. 7 Feb. 3/1 Butt-knives..of French and Swedish makes.
▪ XV. butt, v.1|bʌt|
[a. OF. bote-r, buter (mod.F. bouter) to strike, thrust, project. But senses 3 and 4 have been influenced by association with butt v.2; and quotations occur of which it is difficult to say to which verb they mainly belong.]
1. a. intr. To strike, thrust, shove. Now almost always to strike or push with the head or horns, or with allusion to that sense. Const. at, against.
c1200Ormin 2810 Min child tatt i min wambe liþ..bigann forrþrihht anan To stirenn & to buttenn. c1300Havelok 2323 Buttinge with sharpe speres..Wrastling with laddes, putting of ston. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Sept. 125 That with theyr hornes butten. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) II. xxiii. 150 Whenever he has the power, depend upon it, he will butt at one as valiantly as the other. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xliv. (1856) 406 We have butted several times rudely against projecting floes. 1858Doran Crt. Fools 72 Amused by..a couple of rams butting at each other.
b. fig.
1832Blackw. Mag. XXXI. 117 It [Reform Bill] will butt forcefully against the ramparts of aristocracy. 1859Tennyson Enid 1525 Amazed am I, Beholding how you butt against my wish.
c. To pitch or dive head-foremost. rare.
c1330Arth. & Merl. 5175 The knight donward gan butten Amidward the hors gutten. 1884J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 160 As they came within our zone of fire, they butted forward, hit to death.
d. to butt in: to thrust oneself unceremoniously and uninvited into an affair, discussion, etc.; to intrude, interfere without good reason. orig. U.S.
1900G. Ade Fables in Slang 106 One Student..whose people butt into the Society Column with Sickening Regularity. 1904Philad. Even. Telegraph 8 June 8 To the victors belong the spoils, and not to those who butted in when the smoke of the battle had cleared away. 1915W. J. Locke Jaffery viii, If a man loves a woman..he ought to know what to do with the guy that butted in, without being told. 1920R. Macaulay Potterism iv. i. §2 I've not gone there or written, or anything yet, because I didn't want to butt in. 1922[see buttinsky]. 1928R. Campbell Wayzgoose ii. 53 And what if total strangers butted in? 1957E. Eager Magic by Lake 65 ‘I'm sorry,’ he said, ‘butting in like this, but I've got to tell you something.’
2. trans. To strike, esp. with the head or horns; to drive or push away, out, etc., by blows with the head or horns.
1590Greene Neuer too late (1600) 99 The eaw was coy and butted him. 1607Shakes. Cor. iv. i. 2 The beast With many heads butts me away. 1630Drayton Muses Eliz. Nymphal (R.), I have a lamb..Into laughter 'twill put you To see how prettily 'twill butt you. 1826Scott Woodst. iv. 191 The very deer there will butt a sick or wounded buck from the herd. 1848Kingsley Yeast in Fraser's Mag. XXXVIII. 206 That horrid gazelle has butted him in, and he'll be drowned. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. x. (1856) 73.
3. To come or strike ‘dead’ against. Of the teeth of wheels: to come in contact at their crowns so as to stop each other.
1875Bedford Sailor's Pocket-bk. v. (ed. 2) 190 In winding up chronometers, the turns of the key should..be counted, and the last turn made gently..until it is felt to butt. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 37 The tendency of pinion leaves to butt the wheel teeth.
4. a. intr. To run out, project as an end, jut. Sometimes quasi-refl. with out, into.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. 40 b, The long dolez yt butte fro the said northe felde to the said broke. 1535Coverdale Jer. xlviii. 32 The braunches off Iazer but vnto the see. 1611Coryat Crudities 184 A little square gallery butting out from the Tower. 1644Digby Nat. Bodies xx. (1658) 228 The nose of a weathercock butteth it self into the wind. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 40 The Cone, or obtuse Tip of this Capsula butts or shoots itself into the basis of the Liver. 1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 118 Leave a small part butting forward into the opening.
†b. to butt on, butt to, butt over against: to jut out towards, to be opposite to. Obs.
c1534tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (1846) I. 1, Britaine..beinge an Ilonde in the ocean sea buttinge over agaynste the Frenche shore. 1571Campion Hist. Irel. i. 4 Leinster butteth upon England. 1624Heywoode Gunaik. ii. 92 That part..which butted upon the west. 1647Lilly Chr. Astrol. xxv. 154 A Ground..butting or lying to that quarter of Heaven, as is formerly directed.
¶5. With association of butt n.4
a. trans. To aim a missile.
b. intr. To aim.
a1593Marlowe Dido iii. iv, Whenas he butts his beams on Flora's bed. 1652Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 271 The meer scope thereof, and end whereat it buts.
6. The verb stem (sense 1) is used adverbially with some verbs of motion (as go, meet, run), often with the intensifying adv. full, implying ‘point-blank’ meeting or violent collision. [Cf. OF. de plain bout (Godef. s.v. Bot).]
a1400Morte Arth. 1112 Ffulle butt in þe frunt the fromonde he hittez. c1430Syr Gener. 4587 He..smote Darel In middes of the sheld ful butt. 1600Holland Livy ii. xix. 56 Tarquinius Superbus..ran full but against him. 1673R. Head Canting Acad. 30, I..met full-but with my Comrade. 1752Fielding Amelia viii. i, Before he arrived at the shop, a gentleman stopt him full butt. 1832M. Scott in Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 474 They..ran butt at each other like ram-goats. 1837Marryat Dog-fiend vi, The corporal..ran full butt at the lieutenant.
Add:[1.] e. to butt out: to stop taking part or interfering in (something); to leave off, to ‘shut up’. Freq. imp. Sometimes const. of. (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.).
1906T. Beyer Amer. Battleship in Commission vi. 209 Don't butt in wher' yer have ter butt out. 1930J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel 400 He said it was about time for him to but out, and picked up his hat and coat and left. 1967P. Welles Babyhip (1968) xix. 126 ‘Drop dead’, they said, ‘butt out.’ 1976Ottawa Citizen 10 Dec. 6/3 If you do not read the Bible and are not a believer, then butt out—this is an Anglican family quarrel. 1988R. Rayner Los Angeles without Map e IV. 132 Barbara gave him a cool stare... ‘Butt out, pal.’ 1992Harper's Mag. Oct. 72 If the score is high..word spreads quickly through the movie industry. The film will receive a generous ad budget, the studio will butt out of the editing process, and everyone is thrilled.
▪ XVI. butt, v.2|bʌt|
[Partly f. butt n.4 1; partly aphetic f. abut.]
I.
†1.
a. To fix or mark (out) the limits of (land, etc.) lengthwise, to bound or delimitate as to length; to terminate; to limit, bound. Chiefly in the pass., and esp. in the Conveyancing phrase ‘to be butted and bounded’. Obs.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. Prol., It is necessarye to be knowen howe all these maners..shulde be extended, surueyed, butted, bounded and valued. 1592West Symbol. C j b, Butting it at thends and bounding it at the sides. a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iv. (1704) 393/1 By the Eastern Discovery the length of Africk is butted out..to the Southward. 1657Howell Londinop. 342 A handsome new Street butted out, and fairly built by the Company of Goldsmiths. c16885th Coll. Papers Pres. Juncture 18 The Scripture supposes..Mens Lands to be already butted and bounded, when it forbids removing the Ancient Land-marks. 1727De Foe Eng. Tradesm. I. xxv. 248 We have gained nothing by war and encroachment, we are butted and bounded just where we were in Queen Elizabeth's time. 1816U. Brown Jrnl. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1915) X. 361 This [40,000 acres] is butted and bounded and described directly as the grant is from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ibid. 367 This John Hall..Butted and Bounded of the 2 first lines with our 70,000 Acre tract.
†b. fig. Obs.
1659C. Noble Inexped. Expedient 14 The Humble Petition..hath butted and bounded our Interests. 1680C. Ness Ch. Hist. 447 Antichrist and his Auxiliaries..are so Butted and Bounded by the great God. 1694S. Johnson Notes on Past. Lett. Bp. Burnet i. 22 They are butted and bounded by Law.
†2. absol. To mark out limits (in surveying). Obs.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. 38 b, And he must stande in the myddes of the flatte whan he shall butte truely.
II.
†3.
a. intr. To abut on, upon, against; to touch with the end (cf. bound v.1 3); to adjoin; = abut v. 2, 3. Also fig. Obs.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. 38 b, The southe endes butteth vpon the hall orcharde..and the northe endes but vpon ryhyll. 1570Levins Manip. 195 To Butte, adiacere. 1565Golding Ovid's Met. xiii. (1593) 321 She gat her to a hill That butted on the sea. 1581Savile Agric. (1622) 188 The neerest [Britons] to France likewise resemble the French..because..that in countries butting together the same aspects of the heauens doe yeeld the same complexions of bodies. 1601Holland Pliny xviii. vi, Cn. Pompeius..never..would purchase any ground that butted or bordered upon his owne. 1682Bunyan Holy War (R.T.S.) 314 The remote parts of their country..do both butt and bound upon Hell-gate hill. 1685H. More Paralip. Prophet. 127 The expiration of the sixty-nine Weeks of Daniel which butt vpon the Manifestation of the Messias. 1720Stow's Surv. (ed. Strype 1754) II. vi. iv. 650/1 Burleigh Street buts against Exeter Street. 1798W. Hutton Autobiog. 25 The bedstead, whose head butted against their bedside. 1853P. P. Kennedy Blackwater Chron. i. 6 A large spur—apparently the Backbone itself—keeps straight to the south, and butts down on the Cheat.
b. To border on, go along the margin of.
1594Carew Tasso (1881) 24 He euer butting on the salt-sea waue, By wayes directest doth conduct his hoast.
†4. to butt on, butt upon: (of a line) to end in (a point); (of a road) to issue or lead into. (Cf. Fr. aboutir à, and abut 3). Also fig. Obs.
1634Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 171 Their practice butteth full upon the others' unreasonable and unsound resoning. 1656Trapp Comm. Matt. xxiii. 18 All the worldling's ploughing, sailing, building, buying, buts upon commodity, he knows no other duty. 1673Newton in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 355 Draw AK and BK butting on the eye⁓glass at F. 1678Bunyan Pilgr. I. 37 There are many ways butt down upon this. 1720[see in 3].
5. intr. chiefly techn. of beams, parts of machinery, etc.: To come with one end flat against, on; usually implying that the contiguous surfaces are planes at right angles to the length of beam, etc.
1670Cotton Espernon i. iv. 182 A great Beam that butted upon the Chimney of the Chamber. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) s.v. Scarf, When the ends of the two pieces are cut square, and put together, they are said to butt to one another. 1791Smeaton Edystone L. §56 A lantern, that was raised upon eight fir Balks, which butted upon the solid. 1875‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports ii. viii. ii. §1. 640 From the handle to a little beyond the rowlock most sculls are square, with an oblong leather button..butting against the inside of the thowle.
6. trans. To place (timber, etc.) with its end resting against a plane surface at right angles to its length; to join (iron plates, beams, etc.) end to end, with a flat transverse juncture.
1785Roy in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 460 What may have been lost by constantly butting one rod against the other. 1881Mechanic §1323. 608 The back has not been let in under the brickwork at F, but is merely butted against it.
¶ See also prec. vb., senses 3, 4.
▪ XVII. butt, v.3|bʌt|
[f. butt n.3]
1. Angling. (trans.) To give the butt to (see butt n.3 1 b).
1867F. Francis Angling ix. (1880) 332 If it becomes necessary to butt a fish.
2. U.S. To cut off the rough ends of logs or boards.
1774M. Patten Diary (1903) 331, I cut of 9 Rail cuts and butted 8. 1850S. Judd R. Edney 41 Richard took an axe and very neatly proceeded to ‘butt’ a log; that is, to cut the end of it square off. 1880Northw. Lumberman Jan. 24 If we were buying the logs, we should try to get enough off the scale to pay for the butting, or rather for manufacturing the timber into logs. |