gutter

plural gutters

1. A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water.

   They a not so clean as they might be, since the water [is] carried off by only one gutter, in the centre of t[he] street

   1836, Charles F. Partington, “Paris”, in The British Cyclopaedia of Literature, History, Geography, Law and Politics, page 202

2. A ditch along the side of a road.

   Gutters separated the sidewalk from the road on both sides and flowed with muddy water.

   2008, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

   4 more examples

   In nearly all of the towns the gutters are filled with vegetation, or have been neglected for so long a time that the roadway becomes its own drainage bed.

   1902, Massachusetts Highway Commission, Annual Report of the Massachusetts Highway Commission, volume 9

   ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   As Mike parked the vehicle, its right wheels sank into an unpaved gutter gradually worn irregular and deep by the rush of rainwater flowing down the street.

   2006, Henry Clark, Trophy Boy, page 122

   Meltwater gathered in the icy ruts of the unpaved road, the pressure wearing thin channels in the packed snow. Along the gutter the rivulets of spring runoff cut a course to the storm sewer

   2011, Judith Duncan, Murphy's Child

3. A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough.

   The gutters must be cleared of leaves a few times a year.

4. bowlingA groove down the sides of a bowling lane.

   You can decide to use the bumpers to avoid the ball going down the gutter every time.

5. A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement.
6. Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.
7. mediaA space between printed columns of text.
8. mediaOne of a number of pieces of wood or metal, grooved in the centre, used to separate the pages of type in a form.
9. hobbiesAn unprinted space between rows of stamps.
10. UKA drainage channel.
11. The notional locus of things, acts, or events that are distasteful, ill-bred, or morally questionable.

    Nosei (Löwensohn): This is Tom and Cynthia Kruger. / Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright): I heard. / Nosei: This is Jean-Michel Basquiat. / Tom Kruger (Chuck Pfeiffer): Hi. / Nosei: You've seen the SAMO graffiti everywhere – that's his. This is the true voice of the gutter.

    1996, Julian Schnabel, Basquiat, spoken by Annina Nosei (Elina Löwensohn), United States: Eleventh Street Productions; distributed by Miramax Films

12. figurativelyA low, vulgar state.

    Get your mind out of the gutter.

    2 more examples

    What kind of gutter language is that? I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.

    Lord Darlington. No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

    1892, Oscar Wilde, “Act III”, in Lady Windermere's Fan […]

13. comicsA space between comic strip panels.

present singular third person gutters · participle present guttering · participle past guttered · past guttered

1. To flow or stream; to form gutters.First known use late 14th c.
2. To melt away by having the molten wax run down along the side of the candle.First known use early 18th c.

   Synonyms: cloam

3. or poeticallyTo flicker as if about to be extinguished.

   The light in his eyes guttered like a candle in a mighty wind and finally went out. She had no time to grieve[…]

   2020 November 16, Emma Castle, Devastate Me: A Next-door Neighbor Romance, Lauren Smith, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Alex's eyes gutter, and his face goes cold. He stands there mutely through my apology, stiff and frozen. I want to touch him, but I'm scared he'll flinch away.

   2023 October 10, Clare Gilmore, Love Interest: A Novel, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN

4. transitiveTo send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins.
5. transitiveTo supply with a gutter or gutters.

   A narrow flooring, guttered, walled, and tiled.

   1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

6. transitiveTo cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.

   The gutter'd-Rockes, and Congregated Sands,

   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 II, scene i]

7. intransitiveuncommonTo worsen considerably.

   The patient's state would soon gutter.

   1 more example

   The students' performance guttered after the school event.

comparative more gutter · superlative most gutter

1. derogatoryfigurativelyinformalVulgar, sordid, or low-class.

   The "greatest" controversy came when Farrakhan was accused of calling Judaism a "gutter religion". Farrakhan says he never used the word "gutter."

   1996, A. Marshall, Louis Farrakhan, Made in America, page 143

plural gutters

1. One who or that which guts.

   An old, rusty coat hanger made a rudimentary fish-gutter.

   2013, Don Keith, Shelley Stewart, Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story, page 34

   1 more example

   A Galilean Rabbi? When did this Province of diggers in dirt and gutters of fish send forth Rabbis? Thou makest a jest.

   1921, Bernie Babcock, The Coming of the King, page 151

plural Gutters

1. A surname.