Definitions

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

  • noun Routine or tedious work often viewed as menial.
  • noun A short erect tail, as that of a hare, rabbit, or deer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Short, as a garment, etc.
  • noun A short tail, as that of the rabbit or deer.
  • noun In heraldry, the tail, as of a cony: used only when the tail is of a different tincture from the rest.

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

  • noun The tail of a hare, or of a deer, or other animal whose tail is short, esp. when carried erect; hence, sometimes, the animal itself.

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

  • noun A short, erect tail, as of a hare or rabbit
  • noun rump, pudenda, vulva
  • noun A slut; whore; hussy
  • verb To scamper off
  • noun A contemptible person.
  • noun Distasteful work; drudgery.
  • noun slang, medicine Some menial, common unfinished task left for medical students, or some clinically useful training.

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

  • noun a short erect tail

Etymologies

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

[Short for scutwork.]

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

[Middle English, hare.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse skutr ("stern").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably an alteration of scout (obsolete sense), itself from Middle English

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English shoute, scoute, skoute, shute, schuit (=modern Dutch), scut - "flat-bottomed boat, barge; the master of a shoute; also, a sailor on a shoute."

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Examples

  • MSM may only be afraid of that messy little thing called scut work.

    Firedoglake » The Lieberman Problem 2006

  • The tail of the hare is called the scut, and that of the dog is sometimes called the stern; but this last term, I believe, only relates to dogs used in hunting.

    The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845

  • [1] I can find no authority for the old frontiersman's use of the word but in a certain Elizabethan dramatist; and as he uses the word "scut" for the bobtail of a fleeing rabbit or sheep, perhaps the meanings of the word as used are identical.

    The Freebooters of the Wilderness 1903

  • The outlook for Democrats may not be as dire as in 1994 because the biggest advantage for the Democrats so far is the Republican Party under the clownish incompetent Michael Steele, who can't organize himself let alone the party faithful who would raise money, man phones, do the kind of scut work to get their vote out.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Saul Friedman 2010

  • The outlook for Democrats may not be as dire as in 1994 because the biggest advantage for the Democrats so far is the Republican Party under the clownish incompetent Michael Steele, who can't organize himself let alone the party faithful who would raise money, man phones, do the kind of scut work to get their vote out.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Saul Friedman 2010

  • The outlook for Democrats may not be as dire as in 1994 because the biggest advantage for the Democrats so far is the Republican Party under the clownish incompetent Michael Steele, who can't organize himself let alone the party faithful who would raise money, man phones, do the kind of scut work to get their vote out.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Saul Friedman 2010

  • The outlook for Democrats may not be as dire as in 1994 because the biggest advantage for the Democrats so far is the Republican Party under the clownish incompetent Michael Steele, who can't organize himself let alone the party faithful who would raise money, man phones, do the kind of scut work to get their vote out.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Saul Friedman 2010

  • She was always in some kind of scut jub and would be best described at 20, as a wholesome country girl with a heart of gold.

    Oswald Bastable's Ranting 2008

  • a kind of scut, as at any rate a small representative of it.

    On the Parts of Animals 2002

  • In my newspaper years, I prepared my share of advance profiles of public figures, and I know the scut work that goes into sifting through a decades-long career.

    The Story Behind the Story 2009

Comments

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  • He sped off towards Conway's corner. God speed scut.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 5

    December 31, 2006

  • "'Look at that scut, Foley, sneaking into Johnny Desmond's,' he said as though to himself."

    - Frank O'Connor, 'The Miser'.

    September 6, 2008

  • The minister was ready to burst with laughing, to see me so eager after the scut.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 8 ch. 9

    October 7, 2008