bunt1
/bʌnt
/verb [with object]
1 Baseball (Of a batter) gently tap (a pitched ball) without swinging in an attempt to make it more difficult to field: he tried to bunt the ball down the first baseline [no object]: Phil bunted and got to first...
- With a runner on first the batter bunts the ball in front of the plate.
- The Mets had Jerry Grote on second and Al Weis on first when J.C. Martin bunted the ball toward the first base line that was fielded by Pete Richert, the Baltimore pitcher.
- Lima bunted the ball, which hit directly in front of the plate and appeared to bounce up and hit not only his bat but also his leg.
1.1(Of a batter) help (a base runner) to progress to a further base by bunting a ball: he bunted Davis to third...
- The Rangers had Rusty Greer coming to the plate with first base open because Johnny Oats had bunted a runner over to second.
- Wang Chien-ming of the Yankees bunts a runner to second base while facing the Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday.
- During batting practice, Carroll works on his strengths - such as hitting the ball the other way with a runner on second base and bunting a runner over to second base.
2Push or butt: Gary bunted her with his head...
- The thunder belonged to a herd of baby elephants who began to bunt the walls.
- She bunted her calf, Molly, up on top of the gate with her horns.
- He bunted me with his huge head and then tried to pluck the buttons off my shirt.
noun
1 Baseball An act or result of bunting a pitched ball.When Jim Abbott first took the mound for the California Angels, we could see his disability - that he had only one hand, making the fielding of ground balls and bunts far more than a routine chore....
- Light-hitting Gene ‘Stick’ Michael attempted the squeeze bunt but missed the ball completely, leaving Munson a seemingly easy out at the plate.
- However, the plans backfired as the still agile southpaw turned many of those bunts into double plays by catching them in mid-air.
2An act of flying an aircraft in part of an outside loop.In a bunt, the aircraft experiences a rapid, uncontrolled, tight forward pitching rotation....
- In those days, fighter planes did not have ejection seats and pilots had to use alternative methods, such as the 'bunt', to get out of the plane.
- In that case most of the time it would need to be flown in a bunt.
Origin
Mid 18th century: probably related to the noun butt1 (the original sense).
Rhymes
bunt2
/bʌnt/noun
The baggy centre of a fishing net or a sail.The sailors hoisted the trysails a little way, tightened the sheets, fixed bunts to the sail, and strengthened the tackle and the stop of the lateen yard....
- You can read all the accounts of the battle of Trafalgar you like, but none will give you quite the same understanding as actually hauling on the throat, sweating the peak or making fast the bunts and clews.
- There will be further testing of rigid grids to determine an optimum gap size, colour and material for grids placed in the bunt of the fishing net to allow release of non-target salmon and other species without handling.
Origin
Late 16th century: of unknown origin.
bunt3
/bʌnt/(also wheat bunt)
noun [mass noun]
A disease of wheat caused by a smut fungus, the spores of which give off a smell of rotten fish. Also called stinking smut.
- The fungus is Tilletia caries, class Teliomycetes.
- The primary purpose of treating wheat seed is to protect it from the smut diseases with common bunt being the target disease this season.
- In addition when common bunt or stinking smut aren't identified in the seed, the results can be disastrous and the wheat unharvestable.
Origin
Early 17th century (denoting the puffball fungus): of unknown origin.