gutter

American  

[guht-er] / ˈgʌt ər /

noun

• gutters
  plural

1. a channel at the side or in the middle of a road or street, for leading off surface water.

2. a channel at the eaves or on the roof of a building, for carrying off rainwater.

3. any channel, trough, or the like for carrying off fluid.

4. a furrow or channel made by running water.

5. Bowling. a sunken channel extending along each side of a bowling lane, to catch balls that stray over the edge.

6. the state or abode of those who live in degradation, squalor, etc..

   the language of the gutter.

7. the white space formed by the inner margins of two facing pages in a bound book, magazine, or newspaper.

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verb (used without object)

• gutters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• guttered,
  past participle,  past
• guttering
  present participle

1. to flow in streams.

2. (of a candle) to lose molten wax accumulated in a hollow space around the wick.

3. (of a lamp or candle flame) to burn low or to be blown so as to be nearly extinguished.

4. to form gutters, as water does.

verb (used with object)

• gutters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• guttered,
  past participle,  past
• guttering
  present participle

1. to make gutters in; channel.

2. to furnish with a gutter or gutters.

   to gutter a new house.

gutter British  

/ ˈɡʌtə /

noun

1. a channel along the eaves or on the roof of a building, used to collect and carry away rainwater

2. a channel running along the kerb or the centre of a road to collect and carry away rainwater

3. a trench running beside a canal lined with clay puddle

4. either of the two channels running parallel to a tenpin bowling lane

5. printing

   1. the space between two pages in a forme

   2. the white space between the facing pages of an open book

   3. the space between two columns of type

6. the space left between stamps on a sheet in order to separate them

7. surfing a dangerous deep channel formed by currents and waves

8. (in gold-mining) the channel of a former watercourse that is now a vein of gold

9. a poverty-stricken, degraded, or criminal environment

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verb

1. (tr) to make gutters in

2. (intr) to flow in a stream or rivulet

3. (intr) (of a candle) to melt away by the wax forming channels and running down in drops

4. (intr) (of a flame) to flicker and be about to go out

gutter Idioms  

1. see in the gutter.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• gutter-like
  adjective
• gutterlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• gutters
  plural

Participles

• guttering
  present
• guttered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• gutter
  simple
• gutters
  simple
• have guttered
  perfect
• has guttered
  perfect
• am guttering
  progressive
• are guttering
  progressive
• is guttering
  progressive
• have been guttering
  perfect progressive
• has been guttering
  perfect progressive

Past

• guttered
  simple
• had guttered
  perfect
• was guttering
  progressive
• were guttering
  progressive
• had been guttering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will gutter
  simple
• will have guttered
  perfect
• will be guttering
  progressive
• will have been guttering
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of gutter

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English gutter, goter, from Old French go(u)tiere, equivalent to goutte “drop” + -iere, feminine of -ier; see origin at gout, -er ²

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Explanation

A gutter is a pipe or trough along the edge of a roof that carries rainwater away from a building. Another kind of gutter is the indentation beside a street curb. Water flows through these gutters too, usually into a storm drain. The purpose of the gutters on a roof is to prevent water damage to a structure or flooding around its foundation. A gutter directs the flow of rainwater away from the house, often into a drain or rain barrel. There are other kinds of gutters, too, like the gutters that drain water on the edge of a street and the gutters on the sides of a bowling lane. As a verb, gutter means "to flicker or burn unsteadily," like a candle in the wind.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gutter gutters guttered guttering

Nothing can match the exhilaration of following Rocky’s journey from the gutter to self-respect, but “I Play Rocky” comes amazingly close.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

Carbon says the drone had drifted slightly having lost the GPS signal and clipped the building's gutter on the way out.

From BBC ● May 6, 2026

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars,” wrote Oscar Wilde.

From Barron's ● Apr. 6, 2026

The persistent plunk, plunk, plunk of icicles dripping into an aluminum gutter — a sound that is less birdsong than plumbing.

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2026

In a gutter in downtown Manhattan, half-buried under a piece of sheet metal, a lost cell phone buzzed to life.

From "Eleven" by Tom Rogers

It’s now the largest supplier of seamless gutters in Texas, employs around 350 people and had around $50 million in sales in 2021, according to the National Establishment Time Series database.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Hawaii's emergency management agency recommended residents clear gutters and drains and move valuables off the ground, seal gaps in doors and remove tree limbs that threaten their properties.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

A third contractor found hail damage across the entire roof and gutters and concluded both required replacement.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026

They also have to remove leaves, twigs and needles from gutters, and they already cannot keep exposed firewood in piles next to their house.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2026

And there, walking down the driveway of a brown clapboard ranch-style house with rusted gutters and a storm door askew on its hinges, I saw him—the boy—dragging a trash can down the cracked driveway.

From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez

Down a long slope, the Columbia River guttered below.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2021

In her third round, a ball guttered on the left side for a change.

From New York Times ● Sep. 24, 2021

“Y’know, basic things like in Chicago, the weather gets cold. It snows. The snow falls off the roof. Don’t design a slopping roof where the snow can’t be caught or guttered off somewhere.”

From The Verge ● Dec. 28, 2017

Many of today’s punks grew up in the halcyon nineties, when the flame of the culture had guttered out.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 8, 2017

The candles guttered, and the fire burned low.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck

The insurer told her the hail damage—to guttering and copper on the roof—tallied just $2,000, well below her policy’s deductible.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026

And it’s still a rite of passage among Bardstown teens to see how far across the under-city you and your friends can get with your guttering Bic lighters and your courage.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2023

Clouds of incense, guttering candles: Inside Lviv’s garrison church, singer Vasyl Hnypyuk’s high baritone rose and fell in cadence, supplementing the chanting of presiding priests.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2023

Pest controllers are not allowed to trap and kill grey squirrels living in guttering or roofs - but once they enter lofts or other rooms in a house they can be exterminated.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2023

You could see the abandoned funeral chapel, iron doors padlocked, ivy on the sides of the spire, a small tree growing out of the guttering at roof level.

From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman

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