butter
the fatty portion of milk, separating as a soft whitish or yellowish solid when milk or cream is agitated or churned.
this substance, processed for cooking and table use.
any of various other soft spreads for bread: apple butter; peanut butter.
any of various substances of butterlike consistency, as various metallic chlorides, and certain vegetable oils solid at ordinary temperatures.
to put butter on or in; spread or grease with butter.
to apply a liquefied bonding material to (a piece or area), as mortar to a course of bricks.
Metalworking. to cover (edges to be welded together) with a preliminary surface of the weld metal.
butter up, Informal. 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.
Origin of butter
1Other words from butter
- but·ter·less, adjective
- but·ter·like, adjective
- un·but·tered, adjective
Words that may be confused with butter
- budder, butter
Words Nearby butter
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use butter in a sentence
All the downsides of popcorn but none of the good butter grease.
The Rise and Fall of the Rice Cake, America’s One-Time Favorite Health Snack | Brenna Houck | September 17, 2020 | EaterCompany-provided data show that while travelers are booking almost twice as many remote stays as last year, home rentals in urban markets—Airbnb’s bread and butter—are still struggling.
Airbnb CEO: The pandemic will force us to see more of the world, not less | Verne Kopytoff | September 7, 2020 | FortuneA 19th-century Pennsylvania Dutch doctor’s manual instructs its reader to inscribe the square in butter smeared on a piece of bread and eat it as a cure for rabies.
The ancient palindrome that explains Christopher Nolan’s Tenet | Alissa Wilkinson | September 4, 2020 | VoxThe consumer piece was easier to fix—sell, don’t store, the butter.
Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford explains why farmers need broadband | Ellen McGirt | August 18, 2020 | FortuneIt is the large quantities of salt and the sodium in the butters that are used to season them that can lead to high blood pressure.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Make ‘The Chew’s’ Carla Hall’s Sticky Toffee Pudding | Carla Hall | December 28, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhile the beans are cooling and drying, melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat.
Make Carla Hall’s Crispy Shallot Green Bean Casserole | Carla Hall | December 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST“butter has always been a healthy part of the diet in almost every culture; butter is a traditional food,” Asprey says.
Bulletproof Coffee and the Case for Butter as a Health Food | DailyBurn | December 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTNow, his new book “The Bulletproof Diet,” claims to offer a weight loss solution that lets you have your butter, and eat it too.
Bulletproof Coffee and the Case for Butter as a Health Food | DailyBurn | December 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBy Amanda Woerner for Life by DailyBurn butter is making a comeback—and it has nothing to do with Paula Deen.
Bulletproof Coffee and the Case for Butter as a Health Food | DailyBurn | December 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe sailors sometimes use it to fry their meat, for want of butter, and find it agreeable enough.
You see, they always butter their chairs so that they won't stick fast when they sit down.
Davy and The Goblin | Charles E. CarrylThe former, in its frozen state, somewhat resembled hard butter.
The Giant of the North | R.M. BallantyneHe shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousYour electro-plated butter-dish, or whatever it's going to be, will be simply flung back at you.
First Plays | A. A. Milne
British Dictionary definitions for butter
/ (ˈbʌtə) /
an edible fatty whitish-yellow solid made from cream by churning, for cooking and table use
(as modifier): butter icing Related adjective: butyraceous
any substance with a butter-like consistency, such as peanut butter or vegetable butter
look as if butter wouldn't melt in one's mouth to look innocent, although probably not so
to put butter on or in
to flatter
Origin of butter
1- See also butter up
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with butter
In addition to the idioms beginning with butter
- butter up
- butter wouldn't melt in one's mouth
also see:
- bread and butter
- bread-and-butter letter
- know which side of bread is buttered
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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