putto
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of putto
1635–45; < Italian: literally, boy < Latin putus
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:
Unlike the soft, pliable versions of the Christ child in his early Madonnas, this is a monumental, muscular putto, using his strength to hold that garland aloft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
The view consisted of a rectangular, tiled pool hedged with silvery artemisia bushes; at one end stood a garden-gnome lump of a reproduction putto, coyly peeing into the water.
From Time Magazine Archive
The same tendencies are to be noted in the bronze putto at the Bargello.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various
Thayr surnames be putto lest any man hereafter shuld vsurpe any D iiij.cause of thayr prayse.
From The Pilgrimage of Pure Devotion by Erasmus, Desiderius
And his beautiful putto, boy and dolphin, are loved by everyone.
From Voices from the Past by Bartlett, Paul Alexander
Rendered in pastel and charcoal on paper, the drawings also range from isolated portraits to lavish dreamscapes, populated with Renaissance putti and flowers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2017
Long golden fringe on the back of leather jackets gave the impression of putti wings.
From Washington Times ● May 30, 2017
It was created exactly a century before Berman’s closet, in 1882, and there is nothing not of great luxury in this richly patterned, gorgeously appointed boudoir, with its lavish woodwork and its painted frieze of frolicking putti.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 8, 2017
That’s why one of the coolest things about the opening of the museum is that the putti are putting in an appearance at eye level.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2016
On the base of the capital are two other putti of equal charm, winged like the rest, and sedately looking outwards in either direction.
From Donatello, by Lord Balcarres by Crawford, David Lindsay, Earl of
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.
