▪ I. butter, n.1
(ˈbʌtə(r))
Forms: 1–3 butere, 3 buttere, 4 boter(e, botter, butre, 4–5 buttur, 5 butture, buttir, buttyr, botyr, boture, bottre, 7 butyr, 4– butter.
[OE. butere wk. fem. (in compounds buttor-); ad. L. butyrum, ad. Gr. βούτυρον. So OFris. butera, botera, MDu. bōter(e, botre, Du. boter, MLG. botter, late OHG. (10th or 11th c.) butera, MHG., mod.G. butter, all from Latin.
The Gr. is usually supposed to be f. βοῦς ox or cow + τυρός cheese, but is perhaps of Scythian or other barbarous origin.]
I. 1. a. The fatty substance obtained from cream by churning. It is chiefly used for spreading on bread (see bread and butter), and in cookery.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 194 Wið ᵹeswell, ᵹenim þas ylcan wyrte myllefolium mid buteran ᵹecnucude. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1014 Bred, kalues fleis, and flures bred, And buttere. a 1300 Havelok 643 Bred an chese, butere and milk. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 444 Bothe bred and ale · butter, melke, and chese. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 56 Buttyr or botyr [K. butture], buturum. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 71 Euery promise that thou therin dost vtter, Is as sure as it were sealed with butter. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 560 A grosse fat man.—As fat as Butter. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 318 The fattest Butyr is made of Ewes milke. 1722 De Foe Plague (1884) 105, I laid in..Salt-butter and Cheshire Cheese. a 1867 Buckle Misc. Wks. (1872) I. 307 The Greeks were acquainted with butter, but never ate it. |
b. to make butter and cheese of: ? to confound, bamboozle. (
Cf. Gr. τυρεύειν.)
| 1642 Tract conc. Schisme 11 They made butter and cheese one of another. |
c. (to look) as if butter would not melt in one's mouth: said contemptuously of persons of excessively demure appearance.
| 1530 Palsgr. 620/1 He maketh as thoughe butter wolde nat melte in his mouthe. 1552 Latimer Serm. Lord's Prayer v. II. 79 These fellows..can speak so finely, that a man would think butter should scant melt in their mouths. 1738 Swift Pol. Conv. i. (D.) She looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, but I warrant cheese won't choak her. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis lx. (1885) 595 She smiles and languishes, you'd think that butter would not melt in her mouth. |
d. melted butter: butter melted with water, flour, etc., used as a sauce.
clarified butter or
run butter: butter melted and potted for culinary use.
| 1709 Addison Tatler No. 192 ¶1 A Plate of Butter which had not been melted to his Mind. 1807 Windham Parl. Sp. (1812) III. 46 It was the sort of poverty of conception, reproached by some foreigner to English cookery, that we had but one sauce, and that that sauce was melted butter. 1833 Marryat P. Simple i. 7 I've thickened the butter. 1879 M. C. Tyree Housekpng. Virginia 102 Dish, and serve with drawn butter and parsley. |
e. formerly used as an unguent;
esp. in the preparation called
May butter (see
quots.).
| 1643 J. Steer tr. Exp. Chyrurg. viii. 34 Let him apply the..Ointment of Sweet Butter thereto. 1718 Quincy Dispens. iii. xi. 476 Butyrum Majale, May Butter. This is made by melting fresh Butter that has been made up without any Salt, in the Sun; which is to be repeated until it grows of a whitish Colour. This is a very trifling Medicine, and of no use but as any simple Unguent, or plain Lard may be. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. |
f. fig. Unctuous flattery. (
Cf. butter v.)
colloq.| 1823 Blackw. Mag. XIV. 309 You have been daubed over by the dirty butter of his applause. 1880 World 13 Oct., A lavish interchange of compliments, the butter being laid on pretty thick. |
† 2. ? A dish or confection made with butter.
Obs.| c 1600 Day Begg. Bednall Gr. v. (1881) 114 The old woman my Mother..could have taught thee how to a made butters and flap-jacks. |
3. transf. a. As a name for various substances resembling butter in appearance or consistence, as
butter of almonds = almond-butter;
butter of cacao, a white unctuous substance obtained from the seeds of the cacao: so
butter of mace,
shea butter (the substance which exudes from the African butter-tree), and similar products, called generically
vegetable butters;
butter of wax, a butyraceous oil, obtained from wax by distillation,
rock butter, a mineral composed of alum combined with iron, which exudes as a soft butter-like paste from certain aluminiferous rocks [see
quot. 1811 and
cf. Ger. berg-butter].
| c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 447 Botyr of Almondes. Take almonde mylke, and let hit boyle, and in the boylinge cast therto a lytel wyn or vynegur. 1672 Grew Phil. Hist. Plants §51 No Oyl which remained liquid; but instead of that a Butyr, almost of the Consistence and Colour of the Oyl of Mace. 1752 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Wax, By chemistry, wax yields a white thick oil, resembling butter; whence the chemists call it butter of wax. 1811 Pinkerton Petral. I. 117 The kamennoie maslo, or rock butter, a fat yellowish substance of a penetrating smell, being a mixture of alum and fluid bitumen. 1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 68/2 The most important vegetable butters are produced by the Bassia butyracea..and certain palms, such as the Cocos butyracea and the Elæis Guineensis. 1861 Our English Home 151 Almonds..were boiled until the liquor became a delicious cream, from which was made the famous butter of almonds. 1866 Treas. Bot. s.v. Myristica, [The fixed oil of nutmegs] is extracted by pressure, and forms what is called butter of mace. |
b. esp. in
Chem., an old name of several anhydrous chlorides, as
butter of antimony,
arsenic,
bismuth,
tin,
zinc.
| 1641 French Distill. iii. (1651) 71 Oil or Butter of Antimony. 1802 Chevenix in Phil. Trans. XCII. 164 The muriatic salts, formerly known by the strange name of butters of the metals. 1812 Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 407 The only known compound, bismuth and chlorine..called butter of bismuth. Ibid. 377 Butter of zinc. 1876 Harley Mat. Med. 260 Butter of Antimony is an energetic caustic. |
c. A perfumed fat obtained by inflowering or maceration with a heated fat.
| 1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 526 For the manufacture of perfumes for the handkerchief the greases now known as pomades, butters, or philocomes are treated with rectified spirit of wine..which practically completely abstracts the odour. |
II. Comb. and
attrib. 4. General comb.:
a. attributive, as
butter-cart,
butter-cask,
butter-churn,
butter-crock,
butter-dairy,
butter-dealer,
butter-dew,
butter-dish,
butter-firkin,
† butter-kit,
butter-merchant,
† butter-monger,
butter-pot,
butter-shop (also
fig.),
† butter-skep,
butter-tub;
b. objective
gen., as
butter-maker,
butter-making;
c. similative, as
butter-bright,
butter-colour,
butter-coloured,
butter-like,
butter-smooth,
adjs.| 1868 G. M. Hopkins 17 July in Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 176 The sun coming out..with a *butter-bright lustre. |
| 1828 Miss Mitford Village (1863) 129 [They] would run to meet the *butter-cart as if it were a carriage and four. |
| 1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4383/1 An Act..for Amending of the Law, in relation to *Butter-Casks. 1847 Moir in Rural Cycl. I. 592 The lime is pre-eminently suited for the manufacture of butter-casks. |
| 1589 in H. Hall Soc. in Elizabethan Age (1886) 201 A *butter-churn, 3s. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. ix. 240 In modern India, butter churns are worked with a cord. |
| 1877 Littledale in Academy 24 Feb. 158 There are at least six shades of *butter-colour. |
| 1894 Daily News 20 Mar. 3/2 A deep frill of *butter-coloured lace. |
| 1784 Twamley Dairying 81 A near relation of mine, who kept a *Butter Dairy. |
| 1780 British Topogr. II. 777 Mr. Van's account of *butter-dew that fell in the provinces of Munster and Leinster. |
| 1572 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) 349, xxxix *butter Dishes. 1861 Mrs. Beeton Househ. Managem. 814 An ornamental butter-dish. |
| 1640 Debate in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 151 The..marking of *Butter-Firkins. |
| 1567 Richmond Wills (1853) 209, Ij *butterkitts. |
| 1700 W. Salmon tr. Bate's Pharm. Bat. (ed. 2) 380/2 A *butter-like oil. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. xiii, A small nipple, yielding upon pressure a butter-like substance. 1964 M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) xi. 157 To give a butter-like flavour to margarine. |
| 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede 111 He actually dared not look at this little *buttermaker for the first minute or two. |
| 1751 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. III. 102, I expect immortality from the science of *butter⁓making. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede 70 The linen butter⁓making apron, with its bib. |
| 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 231 The *butter-merchants in London. |
| 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5879/4 William Dixon..*Buttermonger. |
| a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. xvii. 139 A great *Butter-pot full of fresh Cheese. 1865 E. Meteyard J. Wedgwood I. 125 The butter-pot was a coarse cylindrical vessel..formed of clay. |
| 1773 Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 579 The poor man, who keeps a *butter-shop in Newgate-market. 1831 Blackw. Mag. 55 He has carefully collected, preserved, published, and transmitted to the butter-shops, all the hyperbolical bombast. |
| 1572 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) 249 One *butter-skepp. |
| 1920 Galsworthy In Chancery ii. v. 170 His grandfather's first gold hunter watch, *butter-smooth with age. 1969 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 23 Mar. 27/2 (Advt.), There isn't even a clutch pedal. Just a Selective-Automatic transmission. With butter-smooth gears. |
| 1570 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) 318 *Buttertubbes, scuttles and other stuff. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece i. i. 95 Take a Butter-tub. |
5. Special comb.:
† butter-ale = buttered ale (see
ale 4);
butter-and-egg man U.S. slang, a wealthy, unsophisticated man who spends money freely;
butter and eggs, a popular name for several flowers which are of two shades of yellow,
esp. Toadflax (
Linaria vulgaris) and varieties of
Narcissus;
butter and tallow tree (see
quot.);
butter-back, a kind of wild duck (
U.S.);
butter-badger (
dial.), an itinerant butter-factor;
† butter-bag, a contemptuous epithet for a Dutchman (
cf. butter-box);
butter-bake,
Sc., a butter biscuit;
butter-barrel = butter-cask in 4; also
dial. a barrel-churn;
butter-basher,
butter-boy slang, a new driver of a taxi-cab;
butter-bird, a name for the Bobolink (
U.S.);
† butter-bitten,
a., ? given to biting butter (
cf. bitten ppl. a. 4);
butter-boat, a vessel for serving melted butter in; used
fig. of lavish adulation (
colloq.);
butter-bush, an Australian tree,
Pittosporum phylliræoides, of which the wood is used for turnery and the leaves as fodder;
butter-cake, a rich cake
usu. containing butter, sugar, flour, and eggs;
butter cloth, a thin loosely-woven cloth with a fine mesh used primarily as a wrapping for butter;
butter colour, (
a) the colour of butter; (
b) a preparation used to give a good colour to butter and butter substitutes (
Cent. Dict. 1889);
butter-cooler, a vessel for keeping butter cool when brought on the table;
butter cream, a creamed mixture of butter and sugar, etc., used as filling or topping for cake;
butter cross, a market-cross near which butter is sold;
butter-cutter, the name of an insect (? corruption of
bud-cutter; see
bud n.1 5);
butter-dock (see
quot.);
butter-duck U.S. (see
quot.);
butter-factor, a tradesman who buys butter from the farmers to sell wholesale;
butter fat, the essential fats of pure butter; also
attrib.;
butter-flip, a local name of the Avocet;
butter-jags, a
dial. name for
Lotus corniculatus, also for
Medicago falcata;
butter-knife, a blunt knife used for cutting butter at table;
butter-lamp, a lamp fed with butter instead of oil;
butter-leaves, a name for
Atriplex hortensis and
Rumex alpinus;
butter letter, a letter issued on ecclesiastical authority giving permission to eat butter in Lent;
butter-man, a man who makes or sells butter; also
Naut. a schooner rigged in a particular way;
† butter-mark = butter-print 1;
butter-mould (see
quot.);
butter-mouth attrib., a contemptuous epithet for a Dutchman
= butter-bag;
butter muslin = butter cloth;
butter oil, that part of refined cotton-seed oil which is used in making oleomargarine;
butter paper, a semi-transparent waterproof wrapping-paper for butter, cream cheese, etc.;
butter-pat, a small piece of butter rolled or shaped into some ornamental form for the table;
butter-pear = beurré;
butter-plate, a plate for holding butter; also, a name for
Ranunculus flammula;
† butter-quean = butter-whore;
butter-rigged a. Naut. (see
quot. 1885, and
cf. butter-man);
† butter-root = butterwort;
butter salt, fine common salt in small crystals obtained by rapid evaporation of brine, used in salting butter;
butter scoop (see
quot. 1902);
butter-scotch (also
dial. butterscot), a kind of toffee, chiefly composed of sugar and butter;
butter-slide, a slide (
slide n. 9) made of butter or ice; also
fig.;
butter spade, a wooden spatula used in cutting butter from a firkin or other vessel, or used (as one of a pair) for making up butter;
butter stamp = butter-print 1;
butter-stick, a wooden implement used in working butter;
butter substitute, a substance used as a substitute for butter in food;
butter-toast (more commonly
buttered toast), toast spread with butter;
butter tongs (see quot).;
butter-tree, name of
Bassia butyracea and
Bassia Parkii;
butter trier U.S., a segment of a tube used to pierce a firkin of butter for sample;
butter-weed, a name for
Erigeron canadensis and
Senecio lobatus;
butter week (see
quots.);
butter-weight, formerly 18 or more ounces to the pound; hence,
fig. for ‘good measure’ (
obs.);
† butter-whore, a scolding butter-woman;
† butter-wife,
butter-woman, a woman who makes or sells butter;
butter-worker, a contrivance for pressing the butter-milk out of butter;
butter-working, the moulding of butter into rolls, prints, pats, etc., for sale;
butter yellow, a coal-tar dye formerly used for colouring butter, oils, etc. See also
butter-box, -bur, -cup, -fly, -wort, etc.
| 1666 Pepys Diary 17 Mar., Home, having a great cold: so to bed, drinking *butter-ale. |
| 1776 Withering Bot. Arrangem. (1796) III. 552 Toadflax, Snap dragon, *Butter and Eggs. 1880 Jefferies Gt. Estate 83 In shady woodlands the toadflax or butter-and-eggs is often pale,—a sulphur colour. 1926 H. C. Witwer Roughly Speaking 229 A couple of big *butter and egg men from Verona, New Jersey. 1927 Daily Express 31 Aug. 8/7 ‘Butter and egg man’ is an American slang expression practically equal to our term ‘greenhorn’, that is, a man of money who spends lavishly and is an easy prey of the gold-digger and other unscrupulous persons. 1948 Antioch Rev. Spring 105 The ‘butter-and-egg’ man who startles the foreign lecturer with blunt questions. |
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 46 The *Butter and Tallow-tree of Sierra Leone, which owes its name (Pentadesma butyracea) to the yellow greasy juice its fruit yields when cut. |
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 213 Little black and white duck, called *Butter Back (Anas minor picta). |
| 1857 Fraser's Mag. LVI. 355 His father was..a *butter-badger. |
| c 1645 Howell Lett. ii. xi, The *butterbag Hollander. |
| 1828 Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 910 He..thumped *butter-bakes with his elbows to some purpose. |
| 1862 Barnes Rhymes Dorset Dial. I. 6 The *butter-barrel An' cheese wring. |
| 1939 H. Hodge Cab, Sir? xv. 216 Contemptuous cabmen, therefore, called these blacklegs ‘*Butter-bashers’. |
| 1883 Standard 26 Dec., They [bobolinks]..grow so fat that they receive the name of ‘*butter birds’. |
| a 1577 Gascoigne Voy. Hollande (1831) 221 The Dutche with *butterbitten iawes. |
| 1787 Gentl. Mag. Sept. 821/2 His mustard-glass and *butter-boat were overturned. 1807 Byron To Miss Pigot 5 July, Upset a butter-boat in the lap of a lady. 1865 Sat. Rev. 7 Jan. 16/2 That kind of praise which feels like the butter-boat down one's back. 1866 J. E. H. Skinner After Storm I. 181 He praised some things and gave advice about others, using the butter-boat less freely than is customary at volunteer inspections. |
| 1939 H. Hodge Cab, Sir x. 134 During my ‘*butter-boy’ period. Ibid. xv. 215 The new driver is called a ‘Butter-Boy’. 1960 C. Ray Merry England 26 [The] owner-driver..is called a ‘butter-boy’ when he first appears on the rank, taking the butter from the older hands' bread, they say. |
| 1885 Outing (U.S.) Nov. 180/2 A thick hedge of *butter-bush. 1936 I. L. Idriess Cattle King xxviii. 252 The rabbits had killed all the white wood, apple-bush and butter-bush. |
| 1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery xv. 139 (heading) To make a *Butter Cake. 1897 G. du Maurier Martian ii. 53 Scotch butter-cake. 1963 Times 11 Mar. 13/5 Irish butter cakes... Serve hot or cold. |
| 1885 Wilde Lett. (1962) 172 My wife has a huge bill against you—for your meat-safe and the *buttercloth. |
| 1894 Daily News 20 Mar. 3/1 Yellowish cream-colour, called *butter-colour by the modistes. 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 573/1 Improved Butter Color... 1 Gallon Cans. |
| 1790 Pennsylvania Packet 7 Dec. 3/3 *Butter coolers. 1875 G. H. Lewes Problems Life & Mind II. 135 The china service and glass butter-cooler. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 112/1 Ice Jugs and Butter Coolers. |
| 1937 Fowler & West Food for Fifty 121 *Butter cream,..1 lb. sugar, powdered, 5 Eggs [etc.]. 1950 W. H. Evans Spoth's Cake Making & Decoration 195 Butter cream (smooth) for icing and decorating birthday cakes. c 1983 McDougalls Better Baking 22/2 When cold, cut in two and sandwich with coffee butter cream. |
| 1883 Flor. Marryat Moment Madness &c. III. 170 Their old-world institutions and buildings—their *butter crosses and market steps. |
| 1719 London & Wise Compl. Gard. 178 The end of their new Shoots intirely cut off by a little black round Insect, called *Buttercutter. |
| 1863 Prior Plant-n. 36 *Butter-dock, from its leaves being used for lapping butter, whence the Scotch name of it, Smair⁓dock, Rumex obtusifolius. |
| 1857 J. G. Swan Northwest Coast 357 The Colonel saw a ‘*butter-duck’ in a shallow creek... These ducks are the black surf-duck (Fuligula perspicillata). |
| 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 230 The *butter-factors at Honiton. |
| 1889 in A. Davis Package & Print (1967) Pl. 69 Powdered milk without *butter fat. 1899 Daily News 17 Feb. 8/3 The sample..afforded no evidence of the presence of fat other than butter fat. 1906 Macmillan's Mag. June 612 If wanting in butter-fat, it [sc. milk] was not fit for the purpose for which it had been sold. 1946 Nature 12 Oct. 522/1 The obvious technique for assessing levels of performance is milk and butter-fat recording. |
| 1802 G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. (1833) 66 *Butterflip, a name for the Avoset. |
| 1691 Ray N.C. Wds. Coll. 12 *Butter-jags, the Flowers of the Trifolium siliqua cornuta. 1776 Withering Bot. Arrangem. (1796) VI. 659 Yellow Medick, Butterjags. |
| 1850 Dickens Dav. Copp. lxi. 602 Fish-slices, *butter-knives, and sugar-tongs. |
| 1884 Gilmour Mongols 91 The altar on which a *butter-lamp was then burning. |
| 1789 Marshall Glocester (E.D.S.) *Butter-leaves, the leaves of the Atriplex hortensis, or garden orach; which dairywomen in general sow in their gardens, annually, [for packing butter in]. |
| 1893 Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 5/3 In Italy, butter is prohibited [in Lent]... The Northerners, however,..would have none of this, and special ‘*butter-letters’ were consequently dispatched to them from the obliging Vatican. |
| 1802 Edin. Rev. I. 51 *Butter-men..are scarcely ever attacked by the plague. 1885 Daily Tel. 26 Nov. (on Rigs), He believed that this name [butter-man] was given in consequence of numbers of this kind of craft trading to Holland for butter. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 50 *Buttir marke. |
| 1861 Mrs. Beeton Househ. Managem. 814 *Butter-moulds, or wooden stamps for moulding fresh butter. |
| 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. 147, I am a Flemyng, what for all that?.. ‘*Buttermouth Flemyng’, men doth me call. |
| 1902 Connoisseur II. No. 8. p. xvii, Frilled *Butter Muslin. 1903 Tisdale & Robinson Soft Cheesemaking 34 Instead of paper, the cheese is done up in butter muslin. 1906 ― Buttermaking 55 Place a damp butter-muslin over the roller and butter-board. 1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 193/1 The coarser muslins, such as butter muslin, are used for household purposes, for example, straining liquids. |
| 1894 Dairy Rev. Aug. 46/2 Some makers used to prepare the annatto in *butter oil. |
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 573/1 Waxed *Butter Paper, grease proof. |
| 1844 Ainsworth's Mag. VI. 547 The two oars appeared to be playing the parts of *butter-pats with him. 1953 Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954) 30 My crisp toast-fingers, my home-made plum and butterpat. |
| 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 417 Garden tender or delicate pear such as *Butter peare. 1719 London & Wise Compl. Gard. 52 The Burree..It's call'd the Butter Pear, because of its smooth, delicious, melting soft Pulp. |
| 1753 H. Walpole Corr. (1837) I. 203 The *butter-plate is not exactly what you ordered, but I flatter myself you will like it as well. 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 26 Ranunculus Flammula, the Butter-Plate, a name expressive of the comparative flatness of the corolla. |
| 1650 H. More in Enthus. Tri. (1656) 106 You..scold more bitterly than any *Butter-quean. |
| 1881 W. C. Russell Ocean Free L. III. iv. 121 The little wooden cabin of a *butter-rigged schooner. 1885 Daily Tel. 26 Nov. (on Rigs), A butter-rigged schooner's a vessel that sets her top-gallant sail flying. The yard comes down on the top⁓sail yard, and the sails is furled together. |
| 1597 Gerard Herbal cclxiii. §4. 645 In Yorkshire..it is called Butter⁓woorts, *Butter roote, and white roote. |
| 1884 R. Holland Gloss. Wds. Chester, *Butter salt, salt-making term. A fine boiled salt, not stoved, used specially for making up butter. 1892 Cornhill Mag. Sept. 264 The unmoulded salt—locally termed ‘butter-salt’—is sent away in trucks. |
| 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. i. 2 As the market people run a *butter-scoop through a firkin. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 358 The butter-scoop is of wood, and is sometimes perforated; it is used for taking the butter out of the churn. |
| 1855 Whitby Gloss., *Butterscot, treacle ball, with an amalgamation of butter in it. |
| 1865 M. E. Braddon Sir Jasper XXVI. 260 The vendors of toothsome *butterscotch were blithe and busy. |
| 1887 Wilde in Court & Soc. Rev. 2 Mar. 207/2 He met with a severe fall, through treading on a *butter-slide, which the twins had constructed. 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 20 Ice to make slides (if very slippery sometimes called a butterslide). 1928 Observer 1 Apr. 22 It will do us all the good in the world to slip on a mental butter-slide now and again. |
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 572/2 Wooden *Butter Spades and Ladles. 1906 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 119/1 An old Dublin butter-spade with ivory handle. |
| 1881 Ogilvie (Annandale) *Butter-stamp, a piece of carved wood used to mark cakes of butter. |
| 1836 Southern Lit. Messenger II. 480 To beat the collected ends of the fingers with an implement..made like a *butterstick. |
| 1888 *Butter substitute [see substitute n. 6 b]. 1906 Macmillan's Mag. June 607 What are termed ‘butter-substitutes’,—in other words, fraudulent adulterants. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 5 Aug. 2/2 Vegetarians use very extensively a butter substitute derived from the fat of nuts. |
| 1826 Polwhele Trad. & Recoll. II. 381, I found time to..treat him with *butter-toast for his supper, and butter-toast for his breakfast. |
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., *Butter-tongs, an implement for cutting and transferring pieces of butter. |
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 181 The *Butter Tree of Mungo Park was also a species of Bassia. 1866 Treas. Bot., Bassia butyracea, the Indian Butter tree. 1878 H. Stanley Dark Cont. II. xiii. 365 The Bassia Parkii, or Shea butter-tree..exudes a yellowish-white sticky matter. 1886 N. & Q. 30 Jan. 98 The Shea tree or butter tree of Africa. |
| 1868 Rep. Comm. Patents 1867 (U.S.) II. 1218/1 *Butter Tryer... The scraper fits the trough of the gouge to remove the butter therefrom. |
| 1762 P. Murdoch tr. Busching's Syst. Geogr. I. 384 The *Butter-week..when eating of flesh is forbidden and butter is allowed, is the week immediately preceding the great Fast of Lent. 1923 Daily Mail 3 Mar. 10 Maslenitza, or Butter Week, as the Russians call the fortnight preceding Lent, is always celebrated with feasting and drinking in Russia. |
| 1733 Swift On Poetry 540 Yet why should we be lac'd so strait? I'll give my monarch *butter-weight. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 231 This salting in some measure accounts for the enlarged customary butter-weight in this country. |
| 1593 Nashe Four Lett. Confut. 49 Thou arrant *butterwhore, thou cotqueane, & scrattop of scoldes. 1764 T. Bridges Homer Travest. (1797) I. 249 You..scolded like a butter-whore. |
| 1542 Brinklow Complaynt vi. (1874) 19 Not so moch as the poore *butter-wife but she is spoyled. |
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. i. 245, Tongue, I must put you into a *Butter-womans mouth..if you prattle mee into these perilles. 1883 Punch 24 Feb. 87 The five Royal Commissioners in their butterwoman's cloaks. |
| 1854 Rep. Comm. Patents 1853 (U.S.) 247 Improvement in *Butter Workers. 1908 Daily Chron. 16 Nov. 7/1 Churns, cream separators, and butter-workers are turned out by the million in Stockholm. |
| 1906 Ibid. 25 Sept. 2/6 One is reluctantly obliged to conclude that *butter-working is a lost art amongst grocers' assistants. |
| 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Butter Yellow. 1956 Nature 24 Mar. 576/2 Rat liver tumours induced by butter yellow. |
▪ II. † ˈbutter, n.2 Obs. [a. F. boutoir ‘a Farriers Buttresse’ (Cotgr.).] = butteris.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 50 A Buttyr, scalprum. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 311 The humor lies in the foot, for the which you must search with your Butter, paring all the soles of the fore-feet. Ibid. 323 Pull off the shooe, and then open the place grieved with a Butter or Drawer. |
▪ III. † ˈbutter, n.3 Obs. (? nonce-wd.) [app. a. MDu. or Flem. botter ‘aleator improbus et præuaricator’ (Kilian).] One who cheats at play.
| 1474 Caxton Chesse 127 Players at dyse, ribauldes and butters. |
▪ IV. butter, n.4 (
ˈbʌtə(r))
[f. butt v.1 + -er1.] An animal that butts.
| 1611 Cotgr., Cousseur, a butter or iurrer. 1883 Fifesh. Jrnl. 10 May 3/6 The goat is a hard butter. |
▪ V. butter, n.5 (
ˈbʌtə(r))
[f. butt n.3 (or the derived v.3) + er1.] A machine for sawing off the ends of legs or boards, to render them square.
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., In the large saw-mills of the lumber regions double butters are used. |
▪ VI. butter obs. form of
bittern.
| 1600 Sc. Acts 16 Jas. VI, xxiii, Skaildraik, Herron, Butter, or any sic kynde of fowlles. 1620 J. Mason Newfoundl. 4 Butters, blacke Birds with red breastes. |
▪ VII. butter, v. (
ˈbʌtə(r))
[f. butter n.1] 1. a. trans. To smear or spread with butter. Also, To cook or dish up with butter (see
buttered 2).
| 1496 [see buttered ppl. a.]. 1528 Tindale Obed. Chr. Man in Doctr. Treatises (1848) 277 They think that, if the bishop butter the child in the forehead, that it is safe. 1589 Darrell's Accts. in H. Hall Soc. in Elizabeth. Age (1886) 213 For..buttering ij cold chickens, vd. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 8 If I be seru'd such another tricke, Ile haue my braines tane out and butter'd. 1608 ― Lear ii. iv. 127 'Twas her Brother, that in pure kindnesse to his Horse buttered his Hay. 1796 H. Glasse Cookery v. 53 Butter the paper and also the gridiron. 1883 Jago in Knowledge 24 Aug. 120/2 Ship-biscuits..soaked in hot coffee and then buttered. |
b. To close
up with butter.
| 1807 Syd. Smith Plymley's Lett. Wks. 1859 II. 163/1 An Irish peasant fills the barrel of his gun full of tow dipped in oil, butters up the lock, buries it in a bog. |
c. in proverbial expressions, as
fine words butter no parsnips.
to know on which side one's bread is buttered: see
bread 2
f. to butter one's bread on both sides: to be wasteful or luxurious.
to have one's bread buttered for life: to be well provided for.
† to butter the cony: see
quot. 1611.
| 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Ambezatz, Ayant faict Ambezatz, having buttered the connie; hauing had that chance that no wise man would nicke. 1645 Sacred Decretal 5 Fair words butter no fish. 1821 Byron Vis. Judgm. xcvi, His bread, Of which he buttered both sides. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 358 Fine words, says our homely old proverb, butter no parsnips. 1885 D. C. Murray First Pers. Sing. xx. (1886) 152 He told himself that in any case his bread was buttered for life. |
2. fig. † a. See
quot. 1725.
b. To flatter lavishly, to bedaub with fulsome praise or compliment. Now
usu. with
up. Hence
buttering-up vbl. n.| 1700 Congreve Way World Prol. (1866) 259 The squire that's butter'd still is sure to be undone. 1725 New Cant. Dict., To butter, signifies also, to cheat or defraud in a smooth or plausible Manner. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxxvii. 257 Butter him with some warlike terms—praise his dress and address. 1819 T. Moore Tom Crib's Memorial 40 This buttering-up, against the grain, We thought was curs'd genteel in Bob. 1832 Lytton Eugene A. II. ii. viii. 42 Your honour should see how they fawns and flatters, and butters up a man. a 1845 Hood Public Dinner ii, Long speeches are stutter'd, And toasts are well butter'd. 1884 Sat. Rev. 5 July 27/1 The Lord Chief Justice of England made a tour through America and generously buttered the natives. 1924 E. M. Forster Passage to India ix. 106 ‘This is a great relief to us, it is very good of you to call, Doctor Sahib,’ said Hamidullah, buttering him up a bit. 1943 H. Pearson Conan Doyle iii. 42 The little country practitioner who had been buttering them up for a quarter of a century found that he might as well put up his shutters. |
† 3. slang. ‘To increase the stakes every throw or every game’ J.
Obs.| 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Butter, to double or treble the Bet or Wager to recover all Losses. a 1719 Addison Freeholder No. 40 Wks. (1821) 505 One of Mr. Congreve's prologues, which compares a writer to a buttering gamester, that stakes all his winning upon one cast; so that if he loses the last throw, he is sure to be undone. |