butt1
/bʌt
/verb [with object]
1(Of a person or animal) hit (someone or something) with the head or horns: she butted him in the chest...
- Then the gazelle butted my face with pointed horns.
- The goat butted him over; Guidry's rowan garland tumbled loose.
- Bastard butted me in the leg while I was escaping.
1.1Strike (one’s head) against something: he butts his head against a wall...
- The hotel manager come up to yell at him, but was just freaked out by this long-haired dirt butting a little 15-year-old's head into the wall.
- A goat is butting its horns against the crooked door.
- The mare gently butted her nose against the extended palm, wuffling softly.
noun
A push or blow, especially one given with the head.The characters can fight hand to hand using punches, kicks, nudges, butts, combos…...
- The least serious are the routine shoves and butts that seem to accompany almost every NFL play.
- There were a couple of butts, but none of the dirty tactics both pugilists have used in some past fights.
Phrases
butt heads
Phrasal verbs
butt in
butt out
Origin
Middle English: from Old French boter, of Germanic origin.
Butt meaning an end, such as a cigarette stub or the part of a rifle that you hold, is related to Dutch bot ‘stumpy’. It is the same word as butt for your bottom, a meaning that goes back to medieval England. The word is related to Old English buttock. See also bottle
Rhymes
butt2
/bʌt/noun
1The person or thing at which criticism or ridicule is directed: his singing is the butt of dozens of jokes...
- Journalists then, are set to become the butt of criticism and jokes, even as they sally forth to the frontlines.
- So sad for all of you, Mr. Mills and constituents, but all Ralph's jokes must have butts, and this time - it's you.
- But in their defence, the butts of their jokes are generally treated more with affection than ridicule.
Synonyms
target, victim, object, subject, recipient, laughing stock, Aunt Sally
2 (usually butts) An archery or shooting target or range.They are also agreed that the last great years of grouse shooting were in the late 1980s, when the birds made the August skies black as they thundered high over the shooting butts....
- Saboteurs plan to either occupy the shooting butts and force shooters to pack up, or ‘beat’ the birds away from the guns.
- 4. shooting at a blank target butt at a short distance with eyes shut
2.1A mound on or in front of which a target is set up for archery or shooting.Everyone must return to the shooting line and the range checked to make sure no-one is behind the target butts or in the safety zone before the signal to commence shooting is given....
- In the ancestor of Olympic target archery, bowmen aimed at targets mounted on earthen butts at ranges of 100 to 140 yards.
- Outdoor and sometimes indoor ranges have earth or sand butts.
2.2A grouse-shooter’s stand, screened by low turf or a stone wall.After second cross path dips just east of north and heads towards wooden and stone grouse butts....
- A while later at a crossroads, there were exquisite sunken doughnuts of stone and bilberry: i.e. four-star grouse butts, five star but for the nearby quarry.
- Then it's up to the moor itself where the guns take their balloted positions in the butts, simple stone hides screened by turf, where they await the arrival of the birds.
Origin
Middle English (in the archery sense): from Old French but, of unknown origin; perhaps influenced by French butte 'rising ground'.
butt3
/bʌt/noun
1 (also butt end) The thicker end of something, especially a tool or a weapon: a rifle butt...
- I remember trying to block a blow from a rifle butt.
- He pressed the butt hard into his shoulder, closed one eye and aimed into the distance.
- He placed the butt against his shoulder and sighted down the barrels.
Synonyms
stock, shaft, shank, end, handle, hilt, haft, grip, helve
1.1The square end of a plank or plate meeting the end or side of another, as in the side of a ship: [as modifier]: a butt joint...
- Use a butt marker to score the hinge location on the door and jamb.
- Install with alternate overlaps and with two nails on each side 6 to 7 inches above the butt edge.
- It was a Polyethylene butt fusion joint linking two sections of medium pressure pipe.
1.2The thicker or hind end of a hide used for leather.My heart goes out especially to the leathermen, who sadly refasten the butts on their buttless chaps....
- A butt is roughly 4½ ft by 4½ft and is ideal for sturdy straps.
- Cut down the back bone from neck to butt.
2 (also butt end) The stub of a cigar or a cigarette.If I give them a bag of nickels and an ashtray full of cigarette butts, will they tell me my future?...
- The driver flicked his cigarette butt toward an ashtray and missed.
- I was now grinding the cigarette butt into an ash tray on the coffee table.
Synonyms
stub, end, tail end, stump, remnant, remains, remainder
informal fag end, dog end
3 informal, chiefly North American A person’s buttocks or anus: I was being paid to sit on my butt and watch television...
- Sitting on our butts watching television can be dangerous.
- But not all students participate in these optional programs; the great majority of us sit on our butts.
- Finally I walked over there and nudged his butt with the toe of my boot, and he jumped up.
4The trunk of a tree, especially the part just above the ground.Pick the tree up and tap the butt on the ground a few times, notice how many needles fall off the tree....
- And he's designed a special grapple to lift log butts off the ground to snake them out instead of tearing up the forest floor by dragging them.
- He finds that trees with a butt diameter of about 12 inches are ideal for top production.
verb [no object]
1Adjoin or meet end to end: the shop butted up against the row of houses...
- Mr. Johnston discovered as well that the inner block wall simply butted up to the vertical column and did not engage the column flange.
- I wanted to put the unit into my lowest drive bay, but couldn't since in my case it butted up against one of the capacitors on the motherboard.
- I veered right, where the backs of a few stores butted up against our subdivision.
Synonyms
adjoin, abut, butt up to, be next to, be adjacent to, border (on), neighbour, verge on, bound on, be contiguous with, be connected to, communicate with, link up with, extend as far as, extend to;
join, conjoin, connect with/to, touch, meet
1.1 [with object] Join (pieces of stone, timber, and other building materials) with the ends or sides flat against each other.The halves are then placed over the row and are butted up against each other....
- The lenses could be butted up against each other.
- That ought not to have happened as slabs should not butt each other.
Origin
Late Middle English: the noun apparently related to Dutch bot 'stumpy', also to buttock; the verb partly from butt2, reinforced by abut.
butt4
/bʌt/noun
1A cask, typically used for wine, beer, or water: a butt of malmsey...
- George's treacherous intriguing persisted until in 1478 Edward sent him to the Tower where, according to tradition, he was drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.
- We should all be thinking about collecting more water in butts and larger tanks during the wetter winters to come, and the building of ponds and other water-design features.
- The Sheriff of Nottingham proclaimed a shooting match and offered a prize of a butt of ale to whosoever should shoot the best shaft in Nottinghamshire.
2US A liquid measure equal to 126 US gallons (equivalent to 477.5 litres).The pension was originally stipulated at £100 and a butt of sack (108 gallons of sweet wine) yearly....
- They are marked with a "C" and a balance, and were sold at $120 a butt of 110 imperial gallons.
- When imperial measure was introduced in 1825, the gallon and thus the butt were redefined.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French bot, from late Latin buttis.