noun
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a period of time spent doing something, such as drinking
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a period of illness
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a contest or fight, esp a boxing or wrestling match
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bout
1535–45; variant of obsolete bought bend, turn, derivative of bow bow 1; see bight
Explanation
A bout is a fight. If you want to be a boxer, start with some easy bouts before challenging the champ. A bout is a period of time in which something intense happens, like fighting, binging, or being sick, and comes from the word for bending, or going round in a circle. We usually use it these days for something you wouldn't want to go on for too long of a time. If the full moon makes you crazy, you might suffer a bout of madness.
Vocabulary lists containing bout
100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Bud, Not Buddy
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The Diary of a Young Girl
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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:
The bout is expected to stream on Netflix.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
The expected victory for Fury would set up the long-awaited fight with Anthony Joshua, who has his own warm-up bout against Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
A similar bout of selling took place in January 2025 when a new model was released by DeepSeek, another Chinese AI startup with a cost-efficient open-source model.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
The illness can last weeks, and even months, and can be intermittent after the initial bout.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
You ain’t said pea-turkey to me bout it—you or yore daddy, either one.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Prenga, now based in New Jersey, has won 20 pro bouts by knockout and lost once, but the 35-year-old has not faced anyone close to Joshua's level.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
But there is little in the public record to document this, other than items in the gossip pages about their golf bouts.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
The parasitic disease has made thousands of people sick with debilitating bouts of diarrhea this summer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
This will cause bouts of declines, which will curb just how high these stocks go.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
The first step would be to isolate the bouts in question: those fought on a tournament’s final day between a wrestler on the bubble and a wrestler who has already secured his eighth win.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
