putter
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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putters,
present (3rd person singular)
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puttered,
past participle, past
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puttering
present participle
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to busy or occupy oneself in a leisurely, casual, or ineffective manner.
to putter in the garden.
-
to move or go in a specified manner with ineffective action or little energy or purpose.
to putter about the house on a rainy day.
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to move or go slowly or aimlessly; loiter.
noun
verb phrase
noun
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a person who putts.
-
a club with a relatively short, stiff shaft and a wooden or iron head, used in putting.
verb
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(intr;often foll by about or around) to busy oneself in a desultory though agreeable manner
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(intr;often foll by along or about) to move with little energy or direction
to putter about town
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to waste (time)
noun
noun
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a club for putting, usually having a solid metal head
-
a golfer who putts
noun
-
a person who puts
the putter of a question
-
a person who puts the shot
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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puttersimple
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putterssimple
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have putteredperfect
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has putteredperfect
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am putteringprogressive
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are putteringprogressive
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is putteringprogressive
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have been putteringperfect progressive
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has been putteringperfect progressive
Past
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putteredsimple
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had putteredperfect
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was putteringprogressive
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were putteringprogressive
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had been putteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of putter1
First recorded in 1825–30; variant of potter 2
Origin of putter2
First recorded in 1740–50; putt + -er 1
Origin of putter3
Explanation
A golfer who hits the ball very gently close to the hole is a putter. The club used to do this is also a putter. But to putter is to poke around aimlessly, maybe watch a little golf on TV. In golf, the putter is the club with the flat face, and sometimes with a slightly bent shaft. When you hit the ball with a putter, you putt. If you putter, it's something completely different — it means you make yourself busy without accomplishing anything huge. You might putter around the house on Saturday afternoon, filling the dishwasher and flipping through a magazine, for example. The golfing meaning comes from a Scottish word for "push or shove."
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:
“When I’m working, I just don’t cook at all basically, and then when I get time off I like to putter around in the kitchen. I’m not very good, but I like to do it.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026
He said the past two weeks had boosted his confidence in his putter, and it certainly showed as he needed just 22 putts, gaining more than five strokes on the field on the greens.
From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026
I think I’m just a serial putterer, in that I putter around and I don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
But Riggs knew something was working when Tseng called him after her first afternoon with a new lefty putter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2025
Ever since her own parents died, these visits from her mother-in-law had taken on extra importance, and she’d putter around the house, cleaning and cooking, biting her nails as she went.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
The occasion often feels tacked-on amid the barbecues and the shiny putters trotted out like obligations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Within 12 months, Scheffler had risen into the top 15 putters and completed a remarkable season, winning seven PGA Tour events, including a second Masters, and an Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2025
Before the finals, the shot putters emerged from a tunnel, one by one, pausing in front of a television camera.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2024
Crouser could be paving the road for the next generation of shot putters, which Dick Fosbury did for the high jump.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2023
A post-balloon putters back up to her with tea.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
In fact, I was gulping some of the Sailing Goat’s excellent clam chowder when my innkeepers’ 22-foot boat puttered up to the dock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Things puttered along until Elfster’s big break, which came in 2009: Claire’s hired the company for a Secret Santa campaign.
From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2022
Fueled largely by rookie running back Najee Harris and Roethlisberger’s burgeoning trust in rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh puttered along by avoiding mistakes and letting the defense do its thing.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2021
As her own black Lab puttered around behind her, Sally Ange Cowdin, 59, said the Dixie Fire was the third time she had evacuated because of a natural disaster.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 18, 2021
On Sunday, November 12, Dalgard puttered around the house in the morning, fixing things, doing little errands.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Shahed drones have been dubbed "flying mopeds" by Ukrainians because of their puttering engines.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2025
I guess a photo of her puttering around the garden or waving from a window might make some people feel better, but why on earth should she be expected to do that?
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
Drawing them out of the woods often required an audible stimulus comparable to the males’ drumming — the puttering of an all-terrain vehicle engine, for example.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2023
When you’re puttering around town, however, the Mercedes is the smoother of the two.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 29, 2023
The water was clean, the sky a sharp Sunday blue, with all the engines of that white sardine fleet puttering up into it, and a lot of yelling, especially around Papa’s boat.
From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston
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.
