Put1, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. PUT; p. pr. & vb. n. PUTTING.] [Dan. putte, to put, to put into; Fries. putje, allied to W. pwtian, pwtiaw, to butt, poke, thrust. Cf. BOUTADE.]
Sense 1. To move in any direction; to impel; to thrust; to push;—nearly obsolete, except with adverbs, as with by; to thrust aside; to divert;—or with forth; to thrust out.
The design of the evil one is to put thee by from thy spiritual enjoyment. Bp. Taylor.
Sense 2. To bring to a position or place; to place; to lay; to set; hence,
Sense 3. To cause to be or exist in a specified relation;—said either of a thing, or of a property or attribute; to bring to a mental or moral condition, or to the possession of an attribute or quality, or into a state that is specified; as, to put in fear, in mind, in practice, or the like.
When God into the hands of their deliverer Puts invincible might. Milton.
☞ In these uses, the word is modified by prepositions or by adverbs; as, with in, to introduce; with to, to apply; with upon, to impose, &c.; put here, &c. “Having put his hand to the plow.” Luke ix. 62.
Sense 4. To lay down; to give up; to surrender. [Obs.]
No man hath more love than this, that a man put his life for his friends. John xv. 13, Wycliffe’s Trans.
Sense 5. To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention; to offer; as, to put a question; to put a case.
Sense 6. Especially, to state in language; to express; to utter.
These verses, originally Greek, were put in Latin. Milton.
All this is ingeniously and ably put. Hare.
Sense 7. To incite; to entice; to urge.
These wretches put us upon all mischief. Swift.
Put me not to use the carnal weapon in my own defense. W. Scott.
Sense 8. To oblige; to force; to constrain.
Thank him who puts me, loth, to this revenge. Milton.
Sense 9. To throw with the hand raised over the head, as a heavy stone. [Scot.] Jamieson.
To put about (Naut.), to turn or change the course of, as of a ship.—To put away. (a.) To renounce; to discard; to expel. (b.) To divorce.—To put back. (a.) To hinder; to delay. (b.) To restore to the original place. (c.) To set, as the hands of a clock, to an earlier hour.—To put by, to lay or thrust aside. “Smiling put the question by.” Tennyson.—To put down. (a.) To lay down; to deposit. (b.) To degrade; to deprive of position or power; to extinguish; to suppress. “Mark, now, how a plain tale shall put you down.” Shak. (c.) Hence, to bring into disuse. [Obs.] “Sugar hath put down the use of honey.” Bacon.—To put forth. (a.) To thrust out; to extend, as the hand, leaves on a tree, or the like. (b.) To make manifest; to bring into action; to exert; as, to put forth strength. (c.) To propose, as a question, a riddle, and the like. (d.) To publish, as a book.—To put forward. (a.) To advance to a position of prominence or responsibility; to promote. (b.) To cause to progress: to aid. (c.) To set, as the hands of a clock, to a later hour.—To put in. (a.) To introduce among others; to insert; sometimes, to introduce with difficulty; as, to put in a word while others are discoursing. (b.) To conduct into a harbor, as a ship. (c.) (Law.) To place in due form before a court; to place among the records of a court. Burrill.—To put off. (a.) To lay aside; to discard; as, to put off a robe; to put off mortality, or the mortal body; to put off haughty airs. (b.) To turn aside; to defeat; to disappoint; to frustrate; to baffle. “I hoped for a demonstration, but Themistocles hopes to put me off with an harangue.” Boyle. “This is an unreasonable demand, and we might put him off with this answer.” Bentley. (c.) To delay; to defer; to postpone; as, to put off the care of salvation to future opportunities. (d.) To get rid of; to dispose of; especially, to pass fraudulently; as, to put off a counterfeit note, or an ingenious theory. (e.) To push from land; as, to put off a boat.—To put on or upon. (a.) To invest one’s self with, as clothes. “Put on swift wings.” Milton. (b.) To assume; as, to put on airs; to put on a counterfeit appearance. “Mercury . . . put on the shape of a man.” L’Estrange. (c.) To impute to; to charge upon; as, to put one’s own blame on another. (d.) To advance; to promote. [Obs.] “This came handsomely to put on the peace.” Bacon. (e.) To impose; to inflict. “That which thou puttest on me, will I bear.” 2 Kings xviii. 14. (f.) (Law.) To rest upon; to submit to; as, a defendant puts himself upon the country. Burrill.—To put on the crown of, to conclude; to finish. “We fly, not putting on the crown of our so long-held war.” Chapman.—To put out. (a.) To eject; as, to put out an intruder. (b.) To emit; to shoot, as a bud, leaf, or sprout. (c.) To extinguish; as, to put out a candle, lamp, or fire. (d.) To place at interest; as, to put out funds. (e.) To provoke, as by insult; to displease. (f.) To protrude; to stretch forth; as, to put out the hand. (g.) To publish; to make public; as, to put out a pamphlet. (h.) To confuse; to disconcert; to interrupt; as, to put one out in reading or speaking. (i.) (Law.) To open; as, to put out lights, that is, to open or cut windows. Burrill. (j.) (Med.) To place out of joint; to dislocate; as, to put out the ankle.—To put over. (a.) To place in authority; as, to put a general over a division of an army. (b.) To refer; to send.
For the certain knowledge of that truth I put you o’er to heaven and to my mother. Shak.
(c.) To defer; to postpone; as, the court put over the cause to the next term.—To put the hand to, to take hold of: as, (a.) To take hold of an instrument of labor; as, to put the hand to the plow. (b.) To take or seize, as in theft. “Then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he hath not put his hand to his neighbor’s goods.” Ex. xxii. 11.—To put to. (a.) To add; to unite; as, to put one sum to another. (b.) To refer to; to expose; as, to put the fate of the army or nation to a battle; to put the safety of the state to hazard.—To put to a stand, to stop; to arrest by obstacles or difficulties.—To put to death, to kill.—To put together, to unite; to connect; as, to put two sums together; to put two chains together.—To put to it, to distress; to press hard; to perplex; to give difficulty to. “O gentle lady, do not put me to ’t.” Shak.—To be put to it, to have difficulty. “I shall be hard put to it to bring myself off.” Addison.—To put to the sword, to kill with the sword; to slay.—To put to trial, or on trial, to bring to a test; to try.—To put trust in, to confide in; to repose confidence in.—To put up. (a.) To pass unavenged; to overlook; not to punish or resent; as, to put up injuries; to put up indignities. [Rare.] “Such national injuries are not to be put up, but when the offender is below resentment.” Addison. (b.) To send forth or shoot up, as plants; as, to put up mushrooms. [Obs.] Bacon. (c.) To expose; to offer publicly; as, to put up goods to sale at auction. (d.) To start from a cover, as game. [Obs.] “She has been frightened: she has been put up; but what has put her up?” C. Kingsley. (e.) To hoard. “Himself never put up any of the rent.” Spelman. (f.) To lay aside or preserve; to pack away; to store; as, to put up pork, beef, or fish. (g.) To place out of sight, or away; to set in order; as, put up that letter. Shak. (h.) To incite; to instigate;—followed by to.
Synonyms—To place; set; lay; cause; produce; propose; state.—PUT, PLACE. These words, as here compared, agree in the idea of fixing the position of some object. Put denotes to dispose of in any manner; as, to put on a shelf; to put a question. To place is to put in a specific situation; as, to place on the table.
O for that warning voice which he who saw The Apocalypse heard cry in heaven aloud, Then when the dragon, put to second rout, Came furious down to be revenged on men. Milton.
Our two first parents, yet the only two, Of mankind in the happy garden placed. Milton.