bunt

plural bunts

1. countableuncountablenauticalThe middle part, cavity, or belly of a sail; the part of a furled sail which is at the center of the yard.

   The bunt of the sail was green.

2. countableuncountableA push or shove; a butt.
3. countableuncountableball gamesA ball that has been intentionally hit softly so as to be difficult to field, sometimes with a hands-spread batting stance or with a close-hand, choked-up hand position. No swinging action is involved.

   The bunt was fielded cleanly.

4. countableuncountableball gamesThe act of bunting.

   The manager will likely call for a bunt here.

5. countableuncountableaeronauticsThe second half of an outside loop, from level flight to inverted flight.
   1. broadlycountableuncountableaeronauticsAny large pilot-commanded pitch-down motion of an aircraft, often producing negative G-forces and resulting in a large negative change in flightpath angle.
6. countableuncountableA fungus (Ustilago foetida) affecting the ear of cereals, filling the grains with a foetid dust.

   Synonyms: pepperbrand

present singular third person bunts · participle present bunting · participle past bunted · past bunted

1. To push with the horns; to butt.
2. To spring or rear up.
3. transitiveball gamesTo intentionally hit softly with a hands-spread batting stance.

   Jones bunted the ball.

4. intransitiveball gamesTo intentionally hit a ball softly with a hands-spread batting stance.

   Jones bunted.

5. intransitiveaeronauticsTo perform (the second half of) an outside loop.

   1 more example

   We had heard that there was an elite group of three or four pilots in Jodhpur called the “Bunt Club”, who had successfully bunted their aircraft—that is, carried out the second half of an outside loop. In the Bunt, you pushed the nose down, past the vertical and still further, until you were in horizontal inverted flight, and came out on the other side and rolled it out.

   https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/1950s/raghavendran01/

6. intransitivenauticalTo swell out.

   The sail bunts.

7. rareTo headbutt affectionately.

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:bunt.

plural Bunts

1. A surname.