buttery

¹ American  

[buht-uh-ree] / ˈbʌt ə ri /

adjective

1. like, containing, or spread with butter.

2. resembling butter, as in smoothness or softness of texture.

   a vest of buttery leather.

3. grossly flattering; smarmy.

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buttery ² American  

[buht-uh-ree, buh-tree] / ˈbʌt ə ri, ˈbʌ tri /

noun

• butteries
  plural

1. Chiefly New England. a room or rooms in which the provisions, wines, and liquors of a household are kept; pantry; larder.

2. a room in colleges, especially at Oxford and Cambridge universities, from which articles of food and drink are sold or dispensed to the students.

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buttery ¹ British  

/ ˈbʌtərɪ /

adjective

1. containing, like, or coated with butter

2. informal grossly or insincerely flattering; obsequious

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buttery ² British  

/ ˈbʌtərɪ /

noun

1. a room for storing foods or wines

2. (in some universities) a room in which food is supplied or sold to students

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• butteriness
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• butteries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of buttery¹

First recorded in 1350–1400;  Middle English buttry, buttrie; see butter, -y ¹

Origin of buttery²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English boterie, butry, from Middle French, Old French, from Late Latin botāria (derivative of bota, butta “cask”) + -erie; see origin at butt ⁴, -ery

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Explanation

Buttery food is full of butter, a rich creamy fat. Buttery also describes anything that reminds you of butter, like warm yellow light or a smooth talker who’s trying to butter you up so she can borrow your car. Although buttery is often used literally, as in “buttery popcorn,” it can describe anything that’s like butter in another way. If you describe someone's words or manner as buttery, you mean that they act insincerely complimentary or fawning. An old-fashioned meaning of buttery is "storeroom," like a pantry for keeping food or wine. Some British universities have a buttery, which is a snack shack for students.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

buttery butteries

The best brunches in L.A. involve buttery biscuits in Glassell Park, live jazz in View Park-Windsor Hills and Hong Kong French toast in Koreatown, plus much more.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

I took a bite of the buttery Texas toast and the crinkle-cut fries, then dipped them into the creamy, peppery Cane’s Sauce, which tasted something like pickled ranch.

From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026

Jess Pryles, a live-fire cook and the author of “Prime Cuts,” offered her own lyrical description: “Wagyu gives a buttery richness and so easily melts over your tongue.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026

The meat was packed with beefy, buttery and umami flavors, without the iron bite of other steaks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026

And not just any cookies—my mom’s homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting.

From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan

Raffan tucked into supermarket meal deals and butteries - a "really dense, stodgy" Scottish pastry - but describes cold custard as his "secret weapon".

From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2023

Provender was in the butteries, coal within the bins.

From Time Magazine Archive

Between classes I drink cups of coffee with them and eat doughnuts, sitting in various common rooms and butteries and coffee shops.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

The cupboards and the butteries are filled with flour, dried flesh, wine, olives and oil for burning.

From Red Eve by Henry Rider Haggard

Battels, bat′lz, n.pl. an Oxford term signifying accounts for provisions received from college kitchens and butteries: applied generally to the whole of the sums for tuition, &c., charged in college accounts.—v.i.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

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