Gurry-butt
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A horse- or ox-drawn cart used for carrying dung. West-Country, obsolete
"The "GURRY-BUTT," or DUNG-SLEDGE, of Devonshire, is a sort of sliding cart, or barrow; usually of a size proper to be drawn by one horse: sometimes it is made larger; I have seen four oxen drawing compost upon a fallow, in one of these little Implements; which might, anywhere, be made useful, on many occasions; especially in moving earth, stone, rubbish, or manure, a small distance. The sides and ends are about eighteen inches high, and are fixed; the load being discharged by overturning the carriage."
- 2 A large cask used for holding fish offal. obsolete
""'Wouldn't hev your conscience fer a thousand quintal," said Dan. "Turn in, Penn. You've no call to do boy's work. Draw a bucket, Harvey. Oh, Penn, dump these in the gurry-butt 'fore you sleep. Kin you keep awake that long?"¶ Penn took up the heavy basket of fish-livers, emptied them into a cask with a hinged top lashed by the foc'sle; then he too dropped out of sight in the cabin."
Example
More examples"The "GURRY-BUTT," or DUNG-SLEDGE, of Devonshire, is a sort of sliding cart, or barrow; usually of a size proper to be drawn by one horse: sometimes it is made larger; I have seen four oxen drawing compost upon a fallow, in one of these little Implements; which might, anywhere, be made useful, on many occasions; especially in moving earth, stone, rubbish, or manure, a small distance. The sides and ends are about eighteen inches high, and are fixed; the load being discharged by overturning the carriage."
Etymology
From gurry + butt (“cart”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.