Meaning & use
phut
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Meanings
adverbafter a verbinformalBritish
Used in the phrase go phut to say that a machine or plan stops working or fails, often suddenly.
Grammar: Appears after go: the radio went phut.
Patterns
- go phut
Halfway up the hill the old van went phut.
Our plans for the picnic went phut when the rain started.
The printer went phut just before the deadline.
nouncountableinformal
A short, dull popping sound, like a small engine misfiring or something soft hitting the ground.
Grammar: Imitates a sound: the candle went out with a phut.
Patterns
- with a phut
The engine gave a feeble phut and fell silent.
With a soft phut, the snowball landed on the window.
I heard a faint phut as the last spark died.
Common combinations
- go phut
- My laptop went phut during the presentation.
- a dull phut
- The tire let out a dull phut.
- with a phut
- The motor stopped with a phut.
Synonyms and how they differ
- conk out
- Conk out is also informal but is a phrasal verb that fits many subjects; go phut is a fixed phrase with a more playful ring.
- break down
- Break down is neutral and works in any context, whereas go phut sounds jokey and suggests a sudden, small failure.
- fizzle out
- Fizzle out describes something fading gradually, while go phut is abrupt.
Word family
Commonly confused: phut or put?
phut vs put
Put is spelled differently and means to place something somewhere. Phut is a sound word and rhymes with but.
Practice
Which sentence uses the informal British expression correctly?
Choose one answer.
Go phut means to stop working suddenly. The other sentences use phut as a verb or adjective, which it is not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “phut”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.