gut
noun
the alimentary canal, especially between the pylorus and the anus, or some portion of it.
gut
1 American
[guht]
/ gʌt /
noun
-
guts
plural
-
the alimentary canal, especially between the pylorus and the anus, or some portion of it.
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guts,
-
bowels or entrails.
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Informal. courage and fortitude; nerve; determination; stamina.
Climbing that cliff takes a lot of guts.
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the inner working parts of a machine or device.
The mechanic had the guts of the refrigerator laid out on the kitchen floor.
-
-
the belly; stomach; abdomen.
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the substance forming the case of the intestine; intestinal tissue or fiber.
sheep's gut.
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a preparation of the intestines of an animal, used for various purposes, as for violin strings, tennis rackets, or fishing lines.
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the silken substance taken from a silkworm killed when about to spin its cocoon, used in making snells for fishhooks.
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a narrow passage, as a channel of water or a defile between hills.
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Slang. Also gut course snap course.
verb (used with object)
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guts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gutted,
past participle, past
-
gutting
present participle
-
to take out the guts or entrails of; disembowel.
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to destroy the interior of.
Fire gutted the building.
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to plunder (a house, city, etc.) of contents.
Invaders gutted the village.
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to remove the vital or essential parts from.
The prisoner's letters were gutted by heavy censorship.
adjective
idioms
GUT
2
American
Physics.
gut
1
British
/ ɡʌt /
noun
-
-
the lower part of the alimentary canal; intestine
-
the entire alimentary canal
-
-
(often plural) the bowels or entrails, esp of an animal
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slang the belly; paunch
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See catgut
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a silky fibrous substance extracted from silkworms, used in the manufacture of fishing tackle
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a narrow channel or passage
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informal (plural) courage, willpower, or daring; forcefulness
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informal (plural) the essential part
the guts of a problem
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informal to make an intense effort
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informal to be extremely angry with someone
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informal to dislike a person very strongly
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informal to work very hard
verb
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to remove the entrails from (fish, etc)
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(esp of fire) to destroy the inside of (a building)
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to plunder; despoil
the raiders gutted the city
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to take out the central points of (an article), esp in summary form
adjective
GUT
2
British
/ ɡʌt /
acronym
gut
1
Scientific
/ gŭt /
-
The intestine of a vertebrate animal.
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The alimentary canal of an invertebrate animal.
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The tube in a vertebrate embryo that later develops into the alimentary canal, lungs, and liver.
GUT
2
Scientific
gut
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gutsimple
-
gutssimple
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have guttedperfect
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has guttedperfect
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am guttingprogressive
-
are guttingprogressive
-
is guttingprogressive
-
have been guttingperfect progressive
-
has been guttingperfect progressive
Past
-
guttedsimple
-
had guttedperfect
-
was guttingprogressive
-
were guttingprogressive
-
had been guttingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gut
First recorded before 1000; Middle English gut, guttes (plural), Old English guttas (plural), akin to gēotan “to pour”
Explanation
Your gut is part of your digestive system — it's where food goes after you eat it, to get broken down into nutrients and waste. The expression to "go with your gut" means to follow your instincts, how you feel in your belly. Your gut is quite literally your intestines, although the word is frequently used for any part of your digestive system, especially your stomach. Eating too much ice cream can give you an ache in your gut. When gut is a verb, it means to clean the internal organs out of a fish or other animal you intend to eat, or to completely empty a building. Colloquially, if you have guts, you're very brave.
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:
Medications can influence the community of microbes living in the human gut long after a person stops taking them, according to a large study led by researchers at the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
The results add to growing evidence that the gut microbiome reflects more than a person's current diet, lifestyle, health, and medication use.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
According to the researchers, the results reveal a previously unknown mechanism through which diet and specific gut bacteria may work together to support health.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
A species of gut bacteria called Roseburia inulinivorans is associated with greater muscle strength in people and improved muscle performance in mice, according to research published online in the journal Gut.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Because I kept hearing Ms. Platt’s voice: Trust your gut.
From "Maybe He Just Likes You" by Barbara Dee
“You manage a baseball game with your EYES, HEART, & GUT as well as your BRAIN,” Blevins posted.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2020
If the GUT approach is right, the average decay time in question is far longer than the age of the universe itself.
From Economist ● Jan. 11, 2018
The model of the car was unknown, according to the police call, but its plates included the letters and numbers GUT 18053.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 15, 2015
The transition from GUT to electroweak is called spontaneous symmetry breaking.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
The bringing up of the boys he deigned to approve of: 'FAST SO GUT WIE EIN BAUER,' was his trenchant criticism.
From Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson
In the mouse experiment, none of the human Roseburia species permanently colonized the animals' guts.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Wholesale prices were flat in July and inflation pressures in the guts of the economy eased, adding to recent evidence of a slowdown in the rising cost of living.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Motherwell, so easy on the eye last season, have had their guts ripped out in the summer and are also rebuilding, albeit playing with the same easy style as before.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Tom Holland is officially the first “Hot Ones” guest to really spill his guts during a spicy interview.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Everyone had a thought bubble with a reason they might hate my guts.
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
Pruned flowerbeds stand in front of gutted and mangled apartment blocks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Reynolds, 42, said: "Everyone's gutted, grieving, people have lost so much and no-one can go in to see if they can salvage anything."
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Managing to survive two wars, a decapitated leadership, gutted air and naval defenses, weakened proxies and a spiraling economy have allowed it to play a weak hand strongly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Over the years, we’d become close friends, so I was gutted by their move.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
My mother gave him a long metal spoon with which he gutted the interior until the last bits of string and seeds were gone.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Damon’s Odysseus is numbed by the massacre of Troy’s civilians; Fiennes’ hates himself for leading the best men of Ithaca to their death, gutting his own community in the heedless destruction of another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
It brings the season to a close for Richie Murphy's side as they failed to make the United Rugby Championship play-offs in a gutting eight days for the Irish province.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
In all, Alico began gutting 53,000 citrus acres at the end of the 2025 harvest: 35 percent of Florida’s citrus production, condemned in one press release.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
All-American Yaxel Lendeborg, gutting out a knee sprain, added 13.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
I remembered gutting fish with Sookie the day we talked about why Mom liked dissecting things.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
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.
