abut
/əˈbʌt
/verb (abuts, abutting, abutted) [with object]
1(Of a building or an area of land) be next to or have a common boundary with: gardens abutting Great Prescott Street [no object]: a park abutting on an area of waste land...
- Exactly behind the new residential buildings abutting the Opera House forecourt is the Tarpeian Way, but the public viewing platform is gone.
- Her (now ex-) husband's family had been farmers on this part of the Chilterns for a couple of generations and the pub abutted their land.
- Many local forest dwellers and people inhabiting areas abutting forests utilise their traditional skills combined with their knowledge of the interiors of the forests to hunt and set traps for our threatened wildlife.
1.1Touch or lean on: masonry may crumble where a roof abuts it...
- Rather, they tend to develop in the many nooks and crannies formed where roof planes intersect, or where roofs abut walls.
- S5 abuts the right heart border medially, while S4 extends to and comprises a portion of the lateral border of the right lung.
- On the symphyseal side, the concavity abuts a ridge that borders the straight symphyseal surface of the plate.
Synonyms
adjoin, be adjacent to, border, butt up against/to, be next to, neighbour, verge on, join, touch, meet, reach, impinge on, be contiguous with
Origin
Late Middle English: the sense 'have a common boundary' from Anglo-Latin abuttare, from a- (from Latin ad 'to, at') + Old French but 'end'; the sense 'lean upon' (late 16th century) from Old French abouter, from a- (from Latin ad 'to, at') + bouter 'strike, butt', of Germanic origin.
Abut ‘have a common boundary’ is from Anglo-Latin abuttare, from a- (from Latin ad ‘to, at’) and Old French but ‘end’.