bout

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /bʌʊt/
• Rhymes: -aʊt, -ʌʊt
• Homophone: 'bout

From Middle English bout, bowt, bught (whence also modern English bought (“bend, curve”)), probably from Old English *buht (“bend, turn”), an unrecorded variant of Old English byht (“a bend, curve”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“a bend”). ^[1] Equivalent to bow +‎ -t. Doublet of bight and bought.

For the sense development compare bender.

bout (plural bouts)

1. A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant, like an illness.

   Synonym: attack

   a bout of drought

   a coughing bout

   a long bout of the flu

   • 1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Part, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 105:

     The "King" responded well to this treatment and would have maintained 60 m.p.h. up the steepest part had it not been for a brief bout of slipping, which was quickly corrected by Driver Bailes ("Autumn leaves", he remarked laconically).

   • 2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 14:

     Jackson won lasting fame for his treatment of an alcoholic's painful disintegration in his first novel, The Lost Weekend, in which he suggested that the root of his protagonist's bouts with the bottle could be found in his repressed homosexuality.

   • 2025 April 21, Devin Watkins, “Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday aged 88”, in Vatican News‎^[1]:

     Pope Francis was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital on Friday, February 14, 2025, after suffering from a bout of bronchitis for several days.

2. (boxing) A boxing match.
   • 2024 August 1, Tariq Panja, Jeré Longman, “Italian Boxer Quits Bout, Sparking Furor Over Gender at Olympics”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     An Italian boxer abandoned her bout at the Paris Olympics after only 46 seconds on Thursday, refusing to continue after taking a heavy punch from an Algerian opponent who had been disqualified from last year’s world championships over questions about her eligibility to compete in women’s sports.

3. (fencing) An assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
4. (roller derby) A roller derby match.
5. A fighting competition.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

     Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.

6. (music) A bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
7. (dated) The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.
   • 1809, “A Letter to Sir John Sinclair […] containing a Statement of the System under which a considerable Farm is profitably managed in Hertfordshire. Given at the request of the Board. By Thomas Greg, Esq.”, in The Farmer's Magazine, page 395:

     The outside bout of each land is ploughed two inches deeper, and from thence the water runs into cross furrows, which are dug with a spade […] I have an instrument of great power, called a scarifier, for this purpose. It is drawn by four horses, and completely prepares the land for the seed at each bout.

   • 1922, “An Ingenious One-Way Agrimotor”, in The Commercial Motor, volume 34, Temple Press, page 32:

     It is in this manner that the ploughs are reversed at the termination of each bout of the field.

   • 1976, Claude Culpin, Farm Machinery, page 60:

     The last two rounds must be ploughed shallower, and on the last bout the strip left should be one furrow width for a two-furrow plough, two for a three-furrow, and so on. […]

bout (third-person singular simple present bouts, present participle bouting, simple past and past participle bouted)

1. To contest a bout.

Written form of a reduction of about.

bout

1. (colloquial) Aphetic form of about.

   They're talking bout you!

   Maddy is bout to get beat up!

• tubo-

From Middle Dutch bout, from Old Dutch *bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz.

• IPA^(key): /bɑu̯t/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bout
• Rhymes: -ɑu̯t
• Homophones: boud, bouwt

bout m (plural bouten, diminutive boutje n)

1. bolt (threaded metal cylinder)
   • 2004, Wim Ravesteijn, Jan H. Kop, Bouwen in de Archipel. Burgerlijke openbare werken in Nederlands-Indië 1800-2000, page 104:

     Deze werd door speciale bouten verbonden.

     This was secured with special bolts.

2. haunch, leg of an animal as food

   Synonyms: poot, schenkel

   • 2010, Ilse D'hooge, Het complete Libelle pastaboek:

     Roer regelmatig om alle boutjes gelijkmatig te kleuren.

     Stir regularly to give all haunches an even colour.

3. (vulgar) fart

   Synonyms: buikwind, scheet, ruft, wind

   • 2000 March 31, RAYMOND HOFSTE, “passie voor bruine bonen, "Pffffffrrrtttt" Aaaaaaaaaaa.”, in alt.humor.dutch‎^[3] (Usenet):

     De bout was niet alleen hard maar stonk ook als een rot ei.

     The fart wasn't just loud but also stank like a rotten egg.

4. bolt (crossbow arrow)

   Synonyms: kruisboogbout, schicht

   • 1875, Willem Jacob Hofdijk, De oude schutterij in Nederland, page 19:

     Het lichtere esschenhout diende tot pylen of bouten.

     The lighter ash wood was used for arrows or bolts.

5. (Suriname) thigh
6. bar, rod

   Synonyms: staaf, stang

7. (archaic) darling, sweetheart, dear

   Synonyms: lieveling, lieverd, schat, schattebout, schattepatat

8. iron, clothes iron, heater (apparatus for ironing clothing)

   Synonyms: strijkbout, strijkijzer

   • 1986, Jan Terlouw, Gevangenis met een open deur, page 21:

     De bout stoomde nog.

     The clothes iron was still steaming.

• Afrikaans: bout
• Berbice Creole Dutch: bauta
• → Caribbean Hindustani: bowtu
• → Indonesian: baut
• → Papiamentu: bout
• → Sranan Tongo: bowtu (shank)
• → Sranan Tongo: bowtu (bolt)

• moer
• schroef

From Middle French, from Old French bout (“a blow”), derivative of bouter (“to strike”), of Germanic origin. More at bouter.

• IPA^(key): /bu/, (sense 3) /but/, (Québec, popular) /but/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -u
• Homophones: boue, boues, bous, bou, bout, bouts

bout m (plural bouts)

1. end, extremity, tip (of a physical object)
2. bit, piece, scrap
3. (nautical) rope
4. (curling) end

bout

1. third-person singular present indicative of bouillir

• “bout”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From bouter (“to strike”).

bout oblique singular, m (oblique plural bouz or boutz, nominative singular bouz or boutz, nominative plural bout)

1. end (extremity)