butter

American  

[buht-er] / ˈbʌt ər /

noun

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.

---

verb (used with object)

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

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

• butterless adjective
• butterlike adjective
• unbuttered adjective

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

Golden raisins, warmed slowly in butter until they plump and relax, their sweetness deepening into something almost jammy.

From Salon • Apr. 10, 2026

In the core public-markets arm, BlackRock’s iShares exchange-traded funds remain its bread and butter.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026

Recently it has joined the AI rush, deviating from its bread and butter of conventional infrastructure and blue-chip stocks, pumping money into several large AI data center funds, including one with asset manager Brookfield.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

There’s also Turkish Çılbır, which is more of a main dish than a dip since it calls for poached eggs served over a layer of garlicky yogurt and topped with warm spicy butter.

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026

Peach meticulously put away the pickles, the butter, the biscuits.

From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles

Related Words

• margarine
• oil
• shortening