scut

¹ American  

[skuht] / skʌt /

noun

Slang.

1. a worthless, contemptible person.

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scut ² American  

[skuht] / skʌt /

noun

1. a short tail, especially that of a hare, rabbit, or deer.

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scut British  

/ skʌt /

noun

1. the short tail of animals such as the deer and rabbit

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Etymology

Origin of scut¹

1870–75; origin uncertain; perhaps continuation of Scots and dial. scout, scoot, Middle English scoute in same sense; perhaps noun use of Scots scout to spurt, squirt out, scoot

Origin of scut¹

1400–50; late Middle English: hare < Old Norse skutr stern

Example Sentences

He thinks this is partly because AI took so much scut work off people’s plates that their days became consumed by high-level thinking—and they were burning out.

From The Wall Street Journal

But it becomes a problem when colleagues regularly have to take on someone else’s scut work or put more thought into fixing a work product than was put into creating it.

From Washington Post

There’s also a very practical reason for clambering up and down mountains, or doing anything arduous and unglamorous, what PIH-ers called “scut work.”

From Literature

Normally, the vice president gets the scut work, like, say, going to Lorain, Ohio, to talk about the infrastructure law.

From Washington Times

The Senate twice used special trial committees in the late 1980s to handle the scut work of impeachments of federal judges, procedures that were upheld by the Supreme Court.

From Washington Post