putter
1 Americanverb (used without object)
-
to busy or occupy oneself in a leisurely, casual, or ineffective manner.
to putter in the garden.
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to move or go in a specified manner with ineffective action or little energy or purpose.
to putter about the house on a rainy day.
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to move or go slowly or aimlessly; loiter.
noun
verb phrase
noun
-
a person who putts.
-
a club with a relatively short, stiff shaft and a wooden or iron head, used in putting.
verb
-
(intr;often foll by about or around) to busy oneself in a desultory though agreeable manner
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(intr;often foll by along or about) to move with little energy or direction
to putter about town
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to waste (time)
noun
noun
-
a club for putting, usually having a solid metal head
-
a golfer who putts
noun
-
a person who puts
the putter of a question
-
a person who puts the shot
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
puttersimple
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putterssimple
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have putteredperfect
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has putteredperfect
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am putteringprogressive
-
are putteringprogressive
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is putteringprogressive
-
have been putteringperfect progressive
-
has been putteringperfect progressive
Past
-
putteredsimple
-
had putteredperfect
-
was putteringprogressive
-
were putteringprogressive
-
had been putteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of putter1
First recorded in 1825–30; variant of potter 2
Origin of putter2
First recorded in 1740–50; putt + -er 1
Origin of putter3
Explanation
A golfer who hits the ball very gently close to the hole is a putter. The club used to do this is also a putter. But to putter is to poke around aimlessly, maybe watch a little golf on TV. In golf, the putter is the club with the flat face, and sometimes with a slightly bent shaft. When you hit the ball with a putter, you putt. If you putter, it's something completely different — it means you make yourself busy without accomplishing anything huge. You might putter around the house on Saturday afternoon, filling the dishwasher and flipping through a magazine, for example. The golfing meaning comes from a Scottish word for "push or shove."
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:
“When I’m working, I just don’t cook at all basically, and then when I get time off I like to putter around in the kitchen. I’m not very good, but I like to do it.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026
And as Rai’s putter heated up, including with a 68-footer for birdie on No. 17, he built a three-stroke margin of victory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
He said the past two weeks had boosted his confidence in his putter, and it certainly showed as he needed just 22 putts, gaining more than five strokes on the field on the greens.
From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026
I think I’m just a serial putterer, in that I putter around and I don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
Jean Louise drove the putter home beside the fire tongs, gathered up the golf balls, and threw them at the spittoon.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
The occasion often feels tacked-on amid the barbecues and the shiny putters trotted out like obligations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Within 12 months, Scheffler had risen into the top 15 putters and completed a remarkable season, winning seven PGA Tour events, including a second Masters, and an Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2025
He focused on altering the conventional starting point, which has shot putters standing at the back of the ring, facing away from the field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2024
A golf cart turned bullpen boat putters toward the infield to drop off the night’s starting pitcher at his place of work.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2023
Shot putters have to throw the shot as far as they can.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
In fact, I was gulping some of the Sailing Goat’s excellent clam chowder when my innkeepers’ 22-foot boat puttered up to the dock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
But that was the scene I happened upon at 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in mid-April when I puttered into my driveway in Eugene, Oregon, my 7-year-old ensconced in the back seat.
From Slate ● Jun. 21, 2022
Fueled largely by rookie running back Najee Harris and Roethlisberger’s burgeoning trust in rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh puttered along by avoiding mistakes and letting the defense do its thing.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2021
But now he puttered around the creek in his broken-down motorboat.
From Textbooks ● Sep. 1, 2010
For the first time Malcolm saw another boat on the water—a long, low-cabined launch with a quiet motor that puttered gently and held it against the stream.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Shahed drones have been dubbed "flying mopeds" by Ukrainians because of their puttering engines.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2025
Bean catalog: Stare meaningfully at the the swelling sea, the ferries and barges puttering past, the birds that perch on West Brother, the next island over.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Drawing them out of the woods often required an audible stimulus comparable to the males’ drumming — the puttering of an all-terrain vehicle engine, for example.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2023
Even on days they would just come round my house and found me puttering around for like b-roll footage.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
Meanwhile, he was watching television, puttering around the house, enjoying the cool night.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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.
