Bout

//ˈbaʊt// name, noun, prep, verb, slang

Definitions

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

    "a bout of drought"

  2. 2
    an occasion for excessive eating or drinking wordnet
  3. 3
    A boxing match.

    "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."

  4. 4
    a contest or fight (especially between boxers or wrestlers) wordnet
  5. 5
    An assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    a period of illness wordnet
  2. 7
    A roller derby match.
  3. 8
    (sports) a division of a game during which one team is on the offensive wordnet
  4. 9
    A fighting competition.

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

  5. 10
    A bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
  6. 11
    The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field. dated

    "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."

Preposition
  1. 1
    Apheretic form of about. colloquial

    "They're talking bout you!"

Verb
  1. 1
    To contest a bout.

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”). Equivalent to bow + -t. Doublet of bight and bought. For the sense development compare bender.

Etymology 2

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”). Equivalent to bow + -t. Doublet of bight and bought. For the sense development compare bender.

Etymology 3

Written form of a reduction of about.

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