butter

plural butters · alternative slang butta · alternative slang buttah

1. uncountableusuallyA soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk).
2. uncountableusuallycookingAny of various foodstuffs made from other foods or oils, similar in consistency to, eaten like or intended as a substitute for butter (preceded by the name of the food used to make it).

   soy butter

   2 more examples

   peanut butter

   chocolate butter

3. uncountableusuallyAny of various substances made from other (especially plant-based) oils or fats, used in moisturizers, cosmetics, etc.

   Butters such as cocoa, illippe, kokum, mango, murumuru, sal (shorea) and shea occur naturally and are obtained directly from the plant.

   2016 September 7, Elaine Stavert, Beauty Oils & Butter, GMC PUBLICATIONS LTD, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Butters are triglycerides […]. Cocoa butter (Theobroma cacao) is used as an emollient in topical cosmetic formulations, […] South American and the Brazilian rainforest offer various plants with common butters used in the industry that include […] cupuaçu butter […] and murumuru butter from the murumuru palm tree (Astrocaryum murumuru). India is another source of many butters used in cosmetic products, including kokum butter extracted from the seeds of the Garcinia indica tree, mango butter from the Mangifera indica tree and shea butter[…]

   2019 April 5, Heather A.E. Benson, Michael S. Roberts, Vania Rodrigues Leite-Silva, Kenneth Walters, Cosmetic Formulation: Principles and Practice, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 227

4. obsoleteuncountableusuallychemistryAny specific soft substance.

   butter of antimony; butter of arsenic

5. attributiveslangsometimesuncountableusuallySomething that is smooth, impressive, or appealing. (Compare smooth as butter.)

   That “Confessions” into “Nice and Slow” transition [at the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show] was buttah !

   2024 February 12, @OluBliss, X (post)

   1. attributiveslangsometimesuncountableusuallyaeronauticsA smooth plane landing.

      That landing was total butter!

present singular third person butters · participle present buttering · participle past buttered · past buttered · alternative slang butta · alternative slang buttah

1. transitiveTo spread butter on.

   Butter the toast.

2. hobbiesTo move one's weight backwards or forwards onto the tips or tails of one's skis or snowboard so only the tip or tail is in contact with the snow. Similar to applying butter to bread with the end of a knife.
   1. hobbiesTo spin on skis or a snowboard using only the tips or tails being in contact with the snow
3. obsoleteslangtransitiveTo increase (stakes) at every throw of dice, or every game.

plural butters

1. Someone or something that butts.

   […] these animals lacked self-correcting mechanisms of the kind seen in modern head-butters such as goats and big-horn sheep that would have kept the tremendous forces aligned with the rest of the skeleton.

   2005, David E. Fastovsky, David B. Weishampel, The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs, page 156

2. Someone or something that butts in; a busybody.

plural Butters

1. A surname.