gutter
Americannoun
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a channel at the side or in the middle of a road or street, for leading off surface water.
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a channel at the eaves or on the roof of a building, for carrying off rainwater.
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any channel, trough, or the like for carrying off fluid.
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a furrow or channel made by running water.
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Bowling. a sunken channel extending along each side of a bowling lane, to catch balls that stray over the edge.
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the state or abode of those who live in degradation, squalor, etc..
the language of the gutter.
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the white space formed by the inner margins of two facing pages in a bound book, magazine, or newspaper.
verb (used without object)
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to flow in streams.
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(of a candle) to lose molten wax accumulated in a hollow space around the wick.
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(of a lamp or candle flame) to burn low or to be blown so as to be nearly extinguished.
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to form gutters, as water does.
verb (used with object)
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to make gutters in; channel.
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to furnish with a gutter or gutters.
to gutter a new house.
noun
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a channel along the eaves or on the roof of a building, used to collect and carry away rainwater
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a channel running along the kerb or the centre of a road to collect and carry away rainwater
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a trench running beside a canal lined with clay puddle
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either of the two channels running parallel to a tenpin bowling lane
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printing
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the space between two pages in a forme
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the white space between the facing pages of an open book
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the space between two columns of type
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the space left between stamps on a sheet in order to separate them
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surfing a dangerous deep channel formed by currents and waves
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(in gold-mining) the channel of a former watercourse that is now a vein of gold
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a poverty-stricken, degraded, or criminal environment
verb
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(tr) to make gutters in
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(intr) to flow in a stream or rivulet
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(intr) (of a candle) to melt away by the wax forming channels and running down in drops
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(intr) (of a flame) to flicker and be about to go out
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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guttersimple
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gutterssimple
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have gutteredperfect
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has gutteredperfect
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am gutteringprogressive
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are gutteringprogressive
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is gutteringprogressive
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have been gutteringperfect progressive
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has been gutteringperfect progressive
Past
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gutteredsimple
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had gutteredperfect
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was gutteringprogressive
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were gutteringprogressive
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had been gutteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gutter
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English gutter, goter, from Old French go(u)tiere, equivalent to goutte “drop” + -iere, feminine of -ier; see origin at gout, -er 2
Explanation
A gutter is a pipe or trough along the edge of a roof that carries rainwater away from a building. Another kind of gutter is the indentation beside a street curb. Water flows through these gutters too, usually into a storm drain. The purpose of the gutters on a roof is to prevent water damage to a structure or flooding around its foundation. A gutter directs the flow of rainwater away from the house, often into a drain or rain barrel. There are other kinds of gutters, too, like the gutters that drain water on the edge of a street and the gutters on the sides of a bowling lane. As a verb, gutter means "to flicker or burn unsteadily," like a candle in the wind.
Vocabulary lists containing gutter
"Dulce et Decorum Est," by Wilfred Owen
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Slam!
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I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars,” wrote Oscar Wilde.
From Barron's ● Apr. 6, 2026
The persistent plunk, plunk, plunk of icicles dripping into an aluminum gutter — a sound that is less birdsong than plumbing.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2026
“Some are free to choose between penthouse suites, while others are free to choose in which gutter to lay their heads.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
But he realised the falcons were having no success because they had laid their eggs in a metal gutter, which acts as a heat sink, drawing warmth away from the nest.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025
Smushed paper cups in the gutter, long strands of clear plastic, bits of food wrappers.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
The second adjuster confirmed that the entire roof and gutters had sustained hail damage from the same storm the agent had inspected for.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026
When replacing their copper gutters a few years ago, they considered switching to aluminum, which would have been cheaper, but ultimately stuck with copper to preserve the home’s integrity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
Nevertheless, this man, grown out of Flea Bottom’s gutters, appropriates the tradition by holding his vows as a representation of lived reality, rather than as a mere ritual or badge of social class.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2026
Having visited several years ago, I was struck by the smell of urine from the gutters that line the cell blocks.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
The gargoyles were installed on the buttresses and connected to the gutters at the base of the roof by a channel along the top of the flying buttresses.
From "Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction" by David Macaulay
Down a long slope, the Columbia River guttered below.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2021
“Y’know, basic things like in Chicago, the weather gets cold. It snows. The snow falls off the roof. Don’t design a slopping roof where the snow can’t be caught or guttered off somewhere.”
From The Verge ● Dec. 28, 2017
Many of today’s punks grew up in the halcyon nineties, when the flame of the culture had guttered out.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 8, 2017
In Maggie Bofill’s domestic comedy “Winners,” co-produced by the Ensemble Studio Theater and the Radio Drama Network, the home fires have guttered.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2015
And at that the candle-stub guttered, violently, the last of the wick afloat in the pool of wax.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
The insurer told her the hail damage—to guttering and copper on the roof—tallied just $2,000, well below her policy’s deductible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
And it’s still a rite of passage among Bardstown teens to see how far across the under-city you and your friends can get with your guttering Bic lighters and your courage.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2023
Clouds of incense, guttering candles: Inside Lviv’s garrison church, singer Vasyl Hnypyuk’s high baritone rose and fell in cadence, supplementing the chanting of presiding priests.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2023
One resident, 87-year-old Janet Roper said she has been left with "hideous" guttering inside her house, running into a bucket too heavy for her to lift when it was full.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2022
She forgot the pain in her leg and the fiery barricade guttering out behind her.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
