butt

plural butts

1. The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end.
   1. CanadaCumbriaPhilippinesUScountableThe buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass).

      Get up off your butt and get to work.

   2. CanadaCumbriaPhilippinesUScountableThe whole buttocks and pelvic region that includes one's private parts.

      I can see your butt.

   3. CanadaCumbriaPhilippinesUScolloquialcountablemetonymicallyBody; self.

      Get your butt to the car.

      1 more example

      We can't chat today. I have to get my butt to work before I'm late.

   4. countableleather tradesThe thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.
2. The waste end of anything.
   1. countableA used cigarette.

      I walked around, picking butts from the street.

      1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 10, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2

   2. countableA piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.

      c. 1850-1860, Alexander Mansfield Burrill, A New Law Dictionary and Glossary The hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.

   3. West CountrycountableobsoleteHassock.
   4. UScountableA crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.

      Synonyms: boot, heel

3. An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
   1. countablegenerallyThe end of a firearm opposite to that from which a bullet is fired.

      She was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun.

   2. countablegenerallyball gamesThe plastic or rubber cap used to cover the open end of a lacrosse stick's shaft in order to reduce injury.
   3. countablegenerallyThe portion of a half-coupling fastened to the end of a hose.
   4. countablegenerallyThe end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the boxing is attached by the strap, cotter, and gib.
   5. countablegenerallyengineeringA joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together without scarfing or chamfering.

      Synonyms: butt joint

   6. countablegenerallybusinessA kind of hinge used in hanging doors, etc., so named because it is attached to the inside edge of the door and butts against the casing, instead of on its face, like the strap hinge; also called butt hinge.
   7. countablegenerallybusinessThe joint where two planks in a strake meet.
   8. countablegenerallyThe blunt back part of an axehead or large blade. Also called the poll.

      I put out my hand and felt the meat-chopper hanging to the wall. In a flash I was after him. [...] With one last touch of humanity I turned the blade back and struck him with the butt.

      1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 231

   9. countabledateddialectalpossiblygenerallynauticalThe direction from which the wind blows.

      […] when the sun gets round to the butt of the wind, the change, if any is coming, is then to be expected.

      1865, Arthur Kavanagh, The Cruise of the R.Y.S. Eva, page 62

      1 more example

      […] 'the butt' of the wind, the wind will increase or continue. When the sky is light and clear in 'the butt' of the wind, the wind will die away. A strong wind which changes round with the sun E to S to W (clockwise) will die away, and[…]

      2013 April 16, G. W. Maunsell, The Fisherman's Vade Mecum - A Compendium of Precepts, Counsel, Knowledge and Experience in Most Matters Pertaining to Fishing for Trout, Sea Trout, S, Read Books Ltd, →ISBN

4. countableA limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.

   Here is my journey's end, here is my butt / And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], line 267

   1. countableA mark to be shot at; a target.

      archery butt

      archery target

      3 more examples

      To which is fixed, as an aim or butt[…]

      1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 186

      The inhabitants of all cities and towns were ordered to make butts, and to keep them in repair, under a penalty of twenty shillings per month, and to exercise themselves in shooting at them on holidays.

      1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 37

      The groom his fellow groom at butts defies, / And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.

      1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   2. countableusuallyA person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed.

      He's usually the butt of their jokes.

      2 more examples

      I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart.

      1711 September 30 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 175; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

      The man was one of the most conspicuously infamous sights in the imperial court, bred, as he had been, in a shoemaker's shop, of a deformed person and vulgar wit, originally introduced as a butt.

      1876, Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb, Annals of Tacitus., translation of original by Cornelius Tacitus, page 300

      Synonyms: laughing stock

   3. countableThe hut or shelter of the person who attends to the targets in rifle practice.
   4. countabledialectalThe entire ground (range) on which archers' target practice takes place.

      archery butt

      archery ground

present singular third person butts · participle present butting · participle past butted · past butted

1. To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity; to terminate; to be bounded; to abut.

   And Barnsdale there doth butt on Don's well-watered ground.

   1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC

   1 more example

   In the sketch (which is taken about 75 Jovian days after that of the 2nd July) there is shown a dark copper-coloured streak along the southern margin of the south brown belt, butting on to a bluff-headed streak of cumulus cloud which may be the same remarkable bluff head noticed on July 2.

   1878 November 8, C. Todd, “Observations at the Adelaide Observatory”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 39, number 1, page 18

present singular third person butts · participle present butting · participle past butted · past butted

1. transitiveTo strike bluntly, particularly with the head.

   Two harmless lambs are butting one the other.

   1651, Henry Wotton, A Description of the Country's Recreations

2. intransitiveTo strike bluntly with the head.

   Rams butt at other males during mating season.

3. CanadaEasternintransitivetransitiveparts of the northeastern USTo cut in line (in front of someone).

   Teacher! He just butted me!

   1 more example

   Additionally, kids are pinched, fondled, propositioned, and hit; and it all goes unseen amid the general confusion and nonspecific orders from the cafeteria supervisors who are yelling things like, "Keep it down, you people!" "No butting!" "Wait your turn, boys!" All of which sound as though there is law and order, just no actual justice to the victim.

   2016, Chandler, Dan, Bullying in Plain Sight: How Inattentive Adults Encourage the School Bullies, Mustang, O.K.: Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, →ISBN, page 45

plural butts

1. A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head; a head butt.

   Be careful in the pen, that ram can knock you down with a butt.

   2 more examples

   The handcuffed suspect gave the officer a desperate butt in the chest.

   Its noise attracted its outside mate, and the child gloried in its buzzing butts to get in.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 167

2. A thrust in fencing.

   To prove who gave the fairer butt, / John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.

   1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC

plural butts

1. An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun.

   Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons. –

   1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, page 205

   Synonyms: pipe

2. A wooden cask for storing wine, usually containing 126 gallons.

   […]I escap'd upon a butt of sack which the sailors heav'd o'erboard[…]

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 121

plural butts · alternative but

1. Northern EnglandAny of various flatfish such as sole, plaice or turbot.

plural butts

1. IrelandWest CountrydatedA heavy two-wheeled cart.
2. IrelandWest CountrydatedA three-wheeled cart resembling a wheelbarrow.

plural butts

1. The shoulder of an animal, especially the portion above the picnic, as a cut of meat.

   Wrap the pork butt. Work quickly and purposefully to minimize the time the pork butt is out of the smoker. Place the pork butt in the center of a single 18 x 36-inch piece of foil.

   2019 July 22, Chris Grove, The Offset Smoker Cookbook: Pitmaster Techniques and Mouthwatering Recipes for Authentic, Low-and-Slow BBQ, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 85

   2 more examples

   Cut the foot off one inch above the joint, as this makes a much neater looking shoulder. The top third of the shoulder that was removed from the “California ham” is known as the shoulder butt. This piece is divided into lean butt ("Boston Butt") and fat butt ("Clear Plate") […] The lean butt makes an excellent roast.

   1926, E. C. Johnson, Edward James Wilford, Ernest Newton Fergus, George Roberts, Henry Ernest Curtis, John B. Hutson, Oscar Bernard Jesness, William Durrett Nicholls, Man Labor, Horse Work and Materials Used in Producing Crops in Christian County, page 365

   Alternative choices for the shoulder butt oven roast: if you are buying the butt of pork then you must enjoy the flavour that you get only with the fattiet cuts of meat; consequently I suggest the boneless pork loin rib end. Apart from the butt, this wonderful piece of pork has the most fat […]

   2003, Harry Jordan, Meat Harry: A Meat Lover's Guide to Buying and Preparing Beef, Pork, and Poultry, GeneralStore PublishingHouse, →ISBN, page 114

plural butts

1. WalescolloquialSynonym of butty (“a friend or buddy”).

   1 more example

   2025, Eleri Griffiths, Woman goes viral after delivery photo catches her in just a towel (BBC News) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2p0n73zmro "He looks up, laughs as he sees the way I'm looking - soaking wet and in a towel - takes a full-blown picture, and just walks off. "I'm like, 'cheers butt'," she added.

   Synonyms: butty

plural Butts · alternative Butte

1. A surname.
   1. A surname from English.
   2. A surname from German.
   3. A surname from Kashmiri.