bout

plural bouts

1. A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant, like an illness.

   a coughing bout

   5 more examples

   a bout of drought

   a long bout of the flu

   I've boxed in exhibition bouts to entertain the crowds.

   The "King" responded well to this treatment and would have maintained 60 m.p.h. up the steepest part had it not been for a brief bout of slipping, which was quickly corrected by Driver Bailes ("Autumn leaves", he remarked laconically).

   1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Part, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 105

   Jackson won lasting fame for his treatment of an alcoholic's painful disintegration in his first novel, The Lost Weekend, in which he suggested that the root of his protagonist's bouts with the bottle could be found in his repressed homosexuality.

   2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 14

   Synonyms: attack

2. boxingA boxing match.

   An Italian boxer abandoned her bout at the Paris Olympics after only 46 seconds on Thursday, refusing to continue after taking a heavy punch from an Algerian opponent who had been disqualified from last year’s world championships over questions about her eligibility to compete in women’s sports.

   2024 August 1, Tariq Panja, Jeré Longman, “Italian Boxer Quits Bout, Sparking Furor Over Gender at Olympics”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 22 Aug 2024

3. fencingAn assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
4. roller derbyA roller derby match.
5. A fighting competition.

   Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.

   1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC

6. entertainmentA bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
7. datedThe going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.

   It is in this manner that the ploughs are reversed at the termination of each bout of the field.

   1922, “An Ingenious One-Way Agrimotor”, in The Commercial Motor, volume 34, Temple Press, page 32

   2 more examples

   The outside bout of each land is ploughed two inches deeper, and from thence the water runs into cross furrows, which are dug with a spade […] I have an instrument of great power, called a scarifier, for this purpose. It is drawn by four horses, and completely prepares the land for the seed at each bout.

   1809, “A Letter to Sir John Sinclair […] containing a Statement of the System under which a considerable Farm is profitably managed in Hertfordshire. Given at the request of the Board. By Thomas Greg, Esq.”, in The Farmer's Magazine, page 395

   The last two rounds must be ploughed shallower, and on the last bout the strip left should be one furrow width for a two-furrow plough, two for a three-furrow, and so on. […]

   1976, Claude Culpin, Farm Machinery, page 60

present singular third person bouts · participle present bouting · participle past bouted · past bouted

1. To contest a bout.

1. colloquialApheretic form of about.

   They're talking bout you!

   2 more examples

   Maddy is bout to get beat up!

   He talked to Kathy Fri nite bout having a dress up party at her place.

   1973 January 9, Lou Sullivan, Diary

plural Bouts

1. A surname