put-put

or putt-putt

[ puht-puht, -puht ]

noun
  1. the sound made by a small internal-combustion engine or imitative of its operation.

  2. Informal. a small internal-combustion engine, or something, as a boat or model airplane, equipped with one: the sound of distant put-puts on the lake.

verb (used without object),put-put·ted, put-put·ting.
  1. Informal. to operate with sounds suggesting a put-put, as a small motor or motor-driven device.

Origin of put-put

1
First recorded in 1900–05; imitative

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use put-put in a sentence

  • The two boys distinctly could hear the putt-putt-putt of a gasoline engine.

  • The engine coughed, sputtered, and then settled down to a steady putt-putt.

    Ralestone Luck | Andre Norton
  • Above the patter of the rain he heard the putt-putt of a motor launch.

    The Pagan Madonna | Harold MacGrath

British Dictionary definitions for put-put

put-put

/ (ˈpʌtˌpʌt) informal /


noun
  1. a light chugging or popping sound, as made by a petrol engine

  2. a vehicle powered by an engine making such a sound

verb-puts, -putting or -putted
  1. (intr) to make or travel along with such a sound

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012