Meaning & use
butt
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Meanings
nouncountableinformalAmerican
A person's buttocks, the part you sit on.
Grammar: Informal; American English often uses it casually.
Patterns
- sit on your butt
He slipped on the ice and landed on his butt.
Get off your butt and help me move the couch.
The baby plopped onto her butt.
nouncountable
The thicker end of an object such as a rifle, tool or cigarette.
Grammar: Often a compound: a cigarette butt, a rifle butt.
Patterns
- the butt of something
He put out the cigarette butt in the ashtray.
The soldier held the butt of the rifle against his shoulder.
She gripped the butt of the knife.
nounsingular
A person or thing that others joke about or direct criticism at.
Grammar: Always in the phrase the butt of a joke or of criticism.
Patterns
- the butt of something
He was the butt of every joke at work.
The new rule became the butt of public ridicule.
She hated being the butt of their teasing.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To hit or push with the head or horns.
Grammar: Takes an object, or against: the goat butted the gate.
Patterns
- butt something
- butt against something
The goat butted the fence again and again.
He butted the ball into the net with his head.
The calf butted against its mother.
Word forms
| plural | butts |
|---|---|
| third person singular | butts |
| past tense | butted |
| -ing form | butting |
Common combinations
- cigarette butt
- Litter included a cigarette butt and a can.
- butt of a joke
- He was the butt of the joke.
- rifle butt
- The guard struck the door with the rifle butt.
- butt heads
- The two managers often butt heads.
- butt in
- Please don't butt in while I'm speaking.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bottom
- Bottom is milder and appropriate in more settings than butt.
- target
- Target as a figurative word covers criticism or jokes, while butt stresses being laughed at.
- stub
- Stub names what is left of a cigarette or pencil, and not the thick end of a tool.
- ram
- Ram means to strike with great force, harder than a head butt.
Word family
- buttocks noun
- the two rounded parts of the body that you sit on
- butt-end noun
- the thick or remaining end of something
Commonly confused: butt or but?
butt vs but
But is a conjunction meaning however; butt is the noun or verb with the extra t.
Practice
Everyone laughed at Sam because he was always the ___ of the office jokes.
Choose one answer.
The butt of a joke is the person laughed at. But is a conjunction and does not fit here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “butt”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.