ort

[awrt]

noun

Usually orts. a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

Origin of ort

1400–50; late Middle English; cognate with Low German ort, early Dutch oorete; compare Old English or- out-, ǣt food (see eat)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for orts

atom, butt, chip, chunk, crumb, dab, dash, division, dollop, dose, dot, dram, driblet, drop, droplet, end, excerpt, flake, fraction, fragment

Examples from the Web for orts

Historical Examples of orts

I paid our postilions in Norwegian orts, which they laid upon a chair and counted, with the assistance of the whole family.
Northern Travel
Bayard Taylor
From the very next day he left Bipin Babu's orts as they were, and at times forgot to cover the food for him.
Mashi and Other Stories
Rabindranath Tagore
Even an elderly woman, the mother of five or six children, cheerfully partakes of the residue, as if it were the orts of gods.
The Hindoos as they Are
Shib Chunder Bose
Other orts and ends of rabble made up the procession, which with antic and grimace marched about the village and neighbourhood.
British Goblins
Wirt Sikes
Since printing throughout the title Orts, a doubt has arisen in my mind as to its fitting the nature of the volume.
A Dish Of Orts
George MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for orts

orts

pl n

(sometimes singular) archaic, or dialect scraps or leavings

Word Origin for orts

C15: of Germanic origin; related to Dutch oorete, from oor- remaining + ete food

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

Word Origin and History for orts

ort

"remains of food left from a meal," mid-15c., probably cognate with early Dutch ooraete, Low German ort, from or-, privative prefix, + etan "to eat" (see eat (v.)). Perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word.