Bŭtt or Bŭt1, n.
[Fr. but, butt, aim, butte, knoll, bout, O. Fr. bot, end, extremity. Cf. Gael. buta, butt, mark, bot, mound, W. bot, any round body, pwt, any short thing.] 1. The larger end of a thing, as of a piece of timber, or of a fallen tree; an end; a limit; a bound.
Here is my journey’s end, here is my butt And very sea-mark of my utmost sail. Shak.
As applied to land, the word is nearly synonymous with mete, and signifies properly the end line or boundary, the abuttal.
Sense 2. A mark to be shot at; an object of aim.
Base Arjives, blush ye not to stand as made for buts to darts? Chapman.
To which is fixed as an aim or butt Obedience. Shak.
Sense 3. The person at whom ridicule, jests, or contempt is directed; as, the butt of the company.
I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart. Addison.
Sense 4. A push or thrust given by the head of an animal; as, the butt of a ram.
Sense 5. A thrust in fencing.
To prove who gave the fairer butt, John shows the chalk on Robert’s coat. Prior.
Sense 6. [See Boot, n.] A large cask or vessel, also called a pipe.
A wine butt contains 126 wine gallons; a beer butt 108 ale gallons; a butt of sherry 108 imperial gallons.
Sense 7. (Ship-building.) (a.) The end of a plank or piece of timber that unites with another endwise. (b.) The joining of two such pieces.
Sense 8. The thickest and stoutest part of tanned ox-hides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks, &c.
Sense 9. (Mech.) The end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the bush-bearing is attached by a strap fastened to the butt by a cutter and gib.
Sense 10. (Carp.) A kind of hinge made of two plates of metal with edges interlocking for a joint, and fastened together by a pin, on which they turn;—used in hanging doors, &c., and so named because screwed on to the edge of the door, or the part which butts against the casing, and not, like other hinges, on the face of it.
Sense 11. A short piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field. “The hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.” Burrill.
Sense 12. The metal ring at the ends of the hose of a fire-engine.
A butt’s length, the ordinary distance from the place of shooting to the butt, or mark; as, not two pair of butts’ length from the town.—Butts and bounds (Conveyancing), abuttals and boundaries. In lands of the ordinary rectangular shape, butts are the lines at the ends (Fr. bouts), and bounds are those on the sides, or sidings, as they were formerly termed. Burrill.—Butt and butt, joining end to end without overlapping, as planks.