Pronunciations (2)
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/bʌt/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/bʊt/
Pronunciation notes
- Northern-England
Noun
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass).
Usage- Canada
- Cumbria
- Philippines
- US usage
- Countable
- Examples
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Get up off your butt and get to work.
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass). The whole buttocks and pelvic region that includes one's private parts.
Usage- Canada
- Cumbria
- Philippines
- US usage
- Countable
- Examples
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I can see your butt.
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass). Body; self.
Usage- Canada
- Cumbria
- Philippines
- US usage
- Colloquial
- Countable
- metonymically
- Examples
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Get your butt to the car.
We can't chat today. I have to get my butt to work before I'm late.
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end. The thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.
Usage- Countable
The waste end of anything. A used cigarette.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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I walked around, picking butts from the street.
The waste end of anything. A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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c. 1850-1860, Alexander Mansfield Burrill, A New Law Dictionary and Glossary The hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.
The waste end of anything. Hassock.
Usage- West-Country
- Countable
- Obsolete
The waste end of anything. A crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.
Usage- US usage
- Countable
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The end of a firearm opposite to that from which a bullet is fired.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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She was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun.
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The plastic or rubber cap used to cover the open end of a lacrosse stick's shaft in order to reduce injury.
Usage- Countable
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The portion of a half-coupling fastened to the end of a hose.
Usage- Countable
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the boxing is attached by the strap, cotter, and gib.
Usage- Countable
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. A joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together without scarfing or chamfering.
Usage- Countable
- Synonyms
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. A 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.
Usage- Countable
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The joint where two planks in a strake meet.
Usage- Countable
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The blunt back part of an axehead or large blade. Also called the poll.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end. The direction from which the wind blows.
Usage- Countable
- Dated
- dialectal
- possibly
- Examples
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[…] when the sun gets round to the butt of the wind, the change, if any is coming, is then to be expected.
More examples (1)
[…] '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[…]
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
-
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt / And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. A mark to be shot at; a target.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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archery butt
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt[…]
More examples (2)
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.
The groom his fellow groom at butts defies, / And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. A person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed.
Usage- Countable
- usually
- as "butt of (a) joke"
- Synonyms
- Examples
-
He's usually the butt of their jokes.
I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart.
More examples (1)
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.
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. The hut or shelter of the person who attends to the targets in rifle practice.
Usage- Countable
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end. The entire ground (range) on which archers' target practice takes place.
Usage- Countable
- dialectal
- Examples
-
archery butt
Verb
To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity; to terminate; to be bounded; to abut.
- Examples
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And Barnsdale there doth butt on Don's well-watered ground.
More examples (1)
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.
Verb
To strike bluntly, particularly with the head.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Two harmless lambs are butting one the other.
To strike bluntly with the head.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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Rams butt at other males during mating season.
To cut in line (in front of someone).
Usage- Canada
- Eastern
- Intransitive
- Transitive
- Examples
-
Teacher! He just butted me!
More examples (1)
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.
Noun
A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head; a head butt.
- Examples
-
Be careful in the pen, that ram can knock you down with a butt.
The handcuffed suspect gave the officer a desperate butt in the chest.
More examples (1)
Its noise attracted its outside mate, and the child gloried in its buzzing butts to get in.
A thrust in fencing.
- Examples
-
To prove who gave the fairer butt, / John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.
Noun
An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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. –
A wooden cask for storing wine, usually containing 126 gallons.
- Examples
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[…]I escap'd upon a butt of sack which the sailors heav'd o'erboard[…]
Noun
Any of various flatfish such as sole, plaice or turbot.
Usage- Northern-England
Noun
A heavy two-wheeled cart.
Usage- Ireland
- West-Country
- Dated
A three-wheeled cart resembling a wheelbarrow.
Usage- Ireland
- West-Country
- Dated
Noun
The shoulder of an animal, especially the portion above the picnic, as a cut of meat.
- Examples
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More examples (3)
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.
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 […]
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.
Noun
Synonym of butty (“a friend or buddy”).
Usage- Wales
- Colloquial
- Examples
-
More examples (1)
2025, Eleri Griffiths, Woman goes viral after delivery photo catches her in just a towel (BBC News) "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.
Noun
thick end of the handle
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
the part of a plant from which the roots spring or the part of a stalk or trunk nearest the roots
- Broader terms
a victim of ridicule or pranks
- Synonyms
the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he deserves a good kick in the butt
are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?
sports equipment consisting of an object set up for a marksman or archer to aim at
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
finely ground tobacco wrapped in paper; for smoking
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a joint made by fastening ends together without overlapping
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a large cask (especially one holding a volume equivalent to 2 hogsheads or 126 gallons)
the small unused part of something (especially the end of a cigarette that is left after smoking)
- Synonyms
Verb
lie adjacent to another or share a boundary
- Examples
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Canada adjoins the U.S.
England marches with Scotland
to strike, thrust or shove against
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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He butted his sister out of the way
The goat butted the hiker with his horns
place end to end without overlapping
- Examples
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The frames must be butted at the joints