butter

American  

[buht-er] / ˈbʌt ər /

noun

• butter
  plural

1. the fatty portion of milk, separating as a soft whitish or yellowish solid when milk or cream is agitated or churned.

2. this substance, processed for cooking and table use.

3. any of various other soft spreads for bread.

   apple butter; peanut butter.

4. any of various substances of butterlike consistency, as various metallic chlorides, and certain vegetable oils solid at ordinary temperatures.

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verb (used with object)

• butters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• buttered,
  past participle,  past
• buttering
  present participle

1. to put butter on or in; spread or grease with butter.

2. to apply a liquefied bonding material to (a piece or area), as mortar to a course of bricks.

3. Metalworking. to cover (edges to be welded together) with a preliminary surface of the weld metal.

verb phrase

1. butter up to flatter someone in order to gain a favor.

   He suspected that they were buttering him up when everyone suddenly started being nice to him.

butter British  

/ ˈbʌtə /

noun

1. 1. an edible fatty whitish-yellow solid made from cream by churning, for cooking and table use

   2. ( as modifier )

      butter icing

2. any substance with a butter-like consistency, such as peanut butter or vegetable butter

3. to look innocent, although probably not so

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verb

1. to put butter on or in

2. to flatter

butter Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing butter

• bread and butter
• bread-and-butter letter
• know which side of bread is buttered

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• butterless
  adjective
• butterlike
  adjective
• unbuttered
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• butter
  plural

Participles

• buttering
  present
• buttered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• butter
  simple
• butters
  simple
• have buttered
  perfect
• has buttered
  perfect
• am buttering
  progressive
• are buttering
  progressive
• is buttering
  progressive
• have been buttering
  perfect progressive
• has been buttering
  perfect progressive

Past

• buttered
  simple
• had buttered
  perfect
• was buttering
  progressive
• were buttering
  progressive
• had been buttering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will butter
  simple
• will have buttered
  perfect
• will be buttering
  progressive
• will have been buttering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of butter

before 1000; Middle English; Old English butere < Latin būtȳrum < Greek boútȳron

Explanation

Butter is a creamy spread made from milk fat. Your favorite breakfast might be hot toast slathered with butter. The process of making butter involves churning cream until the fats coagulate and become creamy and pale yellow. Butter is sometimes salted, and usually formed into sticks for cooks to use in frying, baking, and spreading on corn on the cob and baked goods. To do this is to butter your bread. The Greek root word is boutyron, literally "cow cheese," from bous, "cow."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

butter butters buttered buttering

These packages, which often run into thousands of dollars, attract many celebrities and corporate buyers who see the Games as a chance to butter up clients or reward top performers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

Cook the remaining corn: Heat the butter or oil in the same saucepan.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

I know what happens when you apply butter and patience to good vegetables.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

Thus, we’ve had microhistories of coal, sugar, rain, dust, cotton, butter, notebooks, eating utensils and bookmaking.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

I almost just died of a sunflower seed butter sandwich.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

I love salty, earthy, nutty and bittersweet toppings, like nut butters, funky cheeses and dark chocolate.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026

She writes his speeches, manages his appointments and butters up an important colleague with the gift of a ceramic pig.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026

WSJ | Buy Side: The Vitamix 5200 makes excellent smoothies, soups, nut butters and more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026

Among the few food items that survived were his handcrafted nut butters he uses for his artisanal frozen dessert and a $1,200 chunk of Parmesan.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2025

“I can’t figure why you’d want to paint the cabinets, but whatever butters your biscuit.”

From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry

Often smeared on hot buttered toast, it tastes like a fishy, peppery paté, befitting the mock Latin name Osborn gave to it, Patum Peperium.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

A standard feature is the halo, a clearly defined sphere that sits like a buttered bonnet on the head of the saint.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026

I first tried a rustic version — ham and cheese tucked haphazardly among the buttered, glazed dough balls — and it was lovely in a messy, casserole-ish way.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2025

You don’t need a microplane or a pasta machine to know its worth; even a humble buttered noodle is elevated by a curl of the real stuff.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2025

Glory nodded and buttered a slice of toast.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova

“It felt a little bit like he was buttering us up,” Brockman testified.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026

Before Musk decided to exit OpenAI, Brockman described his attempts to gain more control over the company, an effort that included "buttering up" Brockman and another co-founder, Ilya Sutskever.

From BBC ● May 5, 2026

Besides, Colby has long displayed a knack for buttering up his superiors.

From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2025

He also wasn’t shy about scolding dining companions who committed such sins as buttering their bread or not eating all their vegetables.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2025

He’d got the other sock on and was buttering toast and his hair stood on end and Mum would have said he looked ‘the spit’ of Stan.

From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd

Related Words

• margarine
• oil
• shortening