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
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use butter in a sentence
Butters gives every indication that he only wishes there were many more than twelve days of Christmas.
The couple began posting photos on a website, The Daily Butters.
Butters kept staring, stone still, the tissue box perfectly balanced.
At the same time, Butters proved to have very specific ideas as to where he felt Mellon and Biggs should sit.
The result is a Twelve Days of Christmas series viewable at the Daily Butters site thedailybutters.com.
At length the family were informed of a woman named Mary Butters, who resided at Carrigfergus.
Irish Witchcraft and Demonology | St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt) SeymourThere were second and third editions published in the same year with Butters name, but without place.
Prices of Books | Henry B. WheatleyMrs. Butters' coyness and refusal to be embraced because of the flask of coffee in her bosom is an instance of this.
A Woman's Part in a Revolution | Natalie Harris HammondFruit butters may be made from good sound fruits or the sound portions of fruits which are wormy or have been bruised.
A Little Preserving Book for a Little Girl | Amy WatermanPeaches are used to a large extent for canning and are also made into preserves, jams, and butters.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5 | Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
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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