buttle
Americanverb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of buttle
First recorded in 1865–70; back formation from butler
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:
This summer, Currie — who has tawny hair and, often, a light tan — is planning to travel to various destinations in Europe to buttle at vacation houses.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
Such is the strange existence of live-in domestics, men and women hired to clean or buttle or nanny.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 3, 2013
Watching him buttle, John Barrymore once said: "You played that as if you came from a long line of butlers."
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Ise can buttle, ise a good yard man.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
"Only today he said that he's livin' in a palace with a sure-enough butler to buttle."
From A Yankee Flier Over Berlin by Paul Laune
She didn't have to say a word to William; he shore was some butler—I reckon he buttled as good as anyone in the Row.
From The Man Next Door by Emerson Hough
As personal assistants have been rebranded as executive assistants and child care providers as executive nannies, buttling has become a career that involves not only polishing silver and folding napkins but also lifestyle management.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
Cronin first met young Armstrong-Jones in 1958 when Cronin was buttling for U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
With the grave deference learned through years of buttling, he takes his place behind a rack of his special omelet pans,* each with its own propane-fueled Bernz-o-matic burner.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
"I can stand on my official dignity, and get out of any cleaning-up work till after dinner, and I won't have any buttling to do till the women get home from church."
From Murder in the Gunroom by H. Beam Piper
"I'll have some work for you, before you're ready to start buttling, too."
From Murder in the Gunroom by H. Beam Piper
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.