Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A smut disease of wheat and other cereal grasses, caused by fungi of the genus Tilletia and resulting in grains filled with foul-smelling, sooty black spores.
  • intransitive verb To bat (a pitched ball) by tapping it lightly so that the ball rolls slowly in front of the infielders.
  • intransitive verb To cause (a base runner) to advance or (a run) to score by bunting.
  • intransitive verb To push or strike with or as if with the head; butt.
  • intransitive verb Baseball To bunt a pitched ball.
  • intransitive verb To butt.
  • noun The act of bunting.
  • noun A bunted ball.
  • noun A butt with or as if with the head.
  • noun The middle portion of a sail, especially a square one, that is shaped like a pouch to increase the effect of the wind.
  • noun The pouchlike midsection of a fishing net in which the catch is concentrated.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A blunt stone arrow-head with rounded edge in place of a point.
  • In baseball, to block (the ball) with the bat, so that it goes to the ground and rolls only a short distance.
  • noun A smut which infests and destroys the kernels of wheat; an ustilagineous fungus, Tilletia caries, which causes serious damage in Europe, and is becoming troublesome in America.
  • noun A name sometimes given to the puffball, Lycoperdon.
  • To swell out; belly, as a sail.
  • To sift.
  • noun The middle part of a square sail; also, the middle, baggy part of a net, etc.
  • To push with the horns or head, as a goat or a calf.
  • To spring; rear.
  • noun A push with the head, or the head and horns.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb (Naut.) To swell out.
  • verb To strike or push with the horns or head; to butt.
  • verb (Baseball) To bat or tap (the ball) slowly within the infield by meeting it with the bat without swinging at it.
  • noun (Bot.) A fungus (Ustilago fœtida) which affects the ear of cereals, filling the grains with a fetid dust; -- also called pepperbrand.
  • noun (Naut.) The middle part, cavity, or belly of a sail; the part of a furled sail which is at the center of the yard.
  • noun (Baseball) A push or shove; a butt

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The middle part, cavity, or belly of a sail; the part of a furled sail which is at the center of the yard.
  • noun baseball, softball A ball that has been intentionally hit softly so as to be difficult to field, sometimes with a hands-spread batting stance or with a close-hand, choked-up hand position. No swinging action is involved.
  • noun baseball, softball The act of bunting
  • noun aviation The second half of an outside loop, from level flight to inverted flight.
  • verb transitive, baseball to intentionally hit softly with a hands-spread batting stance
  • verb intransitive, baseball to intentionally hit a ball softly with a hands-spread batting stance
  • verb intransitive, aviation to perform (the second half of) an outside loop.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun disease of wheat characterized by replacement of the grains with greasy masses of smelly smut spores
  • noun fungus that destroys kernels of wheat by replacing them with greasy masses of smelly spores
  • noun similar to Tilletia caries
  • verb to strike, thrust or shove against
  • noun (baseball) the act of hitting a baseball lightly without swinging the bat
  • verb hit a ball in such a way so as to make it go a short distance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dialectal, to push, strike.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from Swedish bunt or Danish bundt, both of Low German origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bunt.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Bunting, apparently, in the following usage:

    "'When we have furled everything but topsails and forestaysail, we may proceed... But furled in the loose bunt, swagging horribly, with gaskets all ahoo, d'ye hear me there, Mr Seymour,'—directing his voice nominally to Seymour on the forecastle but in fact to the ship's company..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 151

    March 6, 2008

  • In reefing, the yard-arms (the extremes of the yards) are the posts of honor; but in furling, the strongest and most experienced stand in the slings (or middle of the yard) to make up the bunt. If the second mate is a smart fellow, he will never let any one take either of these posts from him; but if he is wanting either in seamanship, strength, or activity, some better man will get the bunt and earings from him, which immediately brings him into disrepute.

    - Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 4

    September 6, 2008

  • Bounder: Anyway you're interested in one of our adventure holidays?

    Tourist: Yes I saw your advert in the bolour supplement

    Bounder: The what?

    Tourist: The bolour supplement

    Bounder: The colour supplement?

    Tourist: Yes I'm sorry I can't say the letter 'B'

    Bounder: C?

    Tourist: Yes that's right. It's all due to a trauma I suffered when I was a spoolboy. I was attacked by a bat

    Bounder: A cat?

    Tourist: No a bat

    Bounder: Can you say the letter 'K'

    Tourist: Oh yes, Khaki, king, kettle, Kuwait, Keble Bollege Oxford

    Bounder: Why don't you say the letter 'K' instead of the letter 'C'

    Tourist: what you mean.....spell bolour with a K

    Bounder: Yes

    Tourist: Kolour. Oh that's very good, I never thought of that. What a silly bunt.

    - from The Travel Agent Sketch by Monty Python

    November 11, 2008

  • Bye, baby Bunting.

    Daddy's gone a hunting,

    To get a little rabbit skin

    To wrap his baby Bunting in.

    Caldecott Baby Bunting

    November 11, 2008