put-put

American  

[puht-puht, -puht] / ˈpʌtˈpʌt, -ˌpʌt /

Or putt-putt

noun

1. the sound made by a small internal-combustion engine or imitative of its operation.

2. Informal. a small internal-combustion engine, or something, as a boat or model airplane, equipped with one.

   the sound of distant put-puts on the lake.

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verb (used without object)

put-putted, put-putting

1. Informal. to operate with sounds suggesting a put-put, as a small motor or motor-driven device.

put-put British  

/ ˈpʌtˌpʌt /

noun

1. a light chugging or popping sound, as made by a petrol engine

2. a vehicle powered by an engine making such a sound

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verb

1. (intr) to make or travel along with such a sound

Etymology

Origin of put-put

First recorded in 1900–05; imitative

Example Sentences

The gentle climate, only slightly exaggerated by Sir Walter, woos people from TV tube and typewriter to putter and put-put, field and stream.

From Time Magazine Archive

Leonard Smith of the New York Evening Post and Alfred H. Kerchhofer of the Buffalo Evening News canoed, capsized, found the lake waters icy, heard the rescuing put-put of several motor boats.

From Time Magazine Archive

How all of us used to dislike the rattling of the put-put, now it is music.

From Time Magazine Archive

The put-put goes out and the battery is very low.

From Time Magazine Archive

There could be no mistaking the put- put-put of a single cylinder motor boat.

From Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island by Stuart, Gordon