RUT (rutted, rutting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: rutted    , rutting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rut mean? 

• RUT (noun)
  The noun RUT has 3 senses:

1. a groove or furrow (especially one in soft earth caused by wheels)

2. a settled and monotonous routine that is hard to escape

3. applies to nonhuman mammals: a state or period of heightened sexual arousal and activity

  Familiarity information: RUT used as a noun is uncommon.

• RUT (verb)
  The verb RUT has 2 senses:

1. be in a state of sexual excitement; of male mammals

2. hollow out in the form of a furrow or groove

  Familiarity information: RUT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A groove or furrow (especially one in soft earth caused by wheels)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("rut" is a kind of...):

channel; groove (a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record))

Derivation:

rut (hollow out in the form of a furrow or groove)

rutty (full of ruts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A settled and monotonous routine that is hard to escape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

groove; rut

Context example:

they fell into a conversational rut

Hypernyms ("rut" is a kind of...):

modus operandi; routine (an unvarying or habitual method or procedure)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Applies to nonhuman mammals: a state or period of heightened sexual arousal and activity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

estrus; heat; oestrus; rut

Hypernyms ("rut" is a kind of...):

physical condition; physiological condition; physiological state (the condition or state of the body or bodily functions)

Derivation:

rut (be in a state of sexual excitement; of male mammals)

• RUT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they rut    ... he / she / it ruts   
Past simple: rutted   
Past participle: rutted   
-ing form: rutting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be in a state of sexual excitement; of male mammals

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "rut" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

rut (applies to nonhuman mammals: a state or period of heightened sexual arousal and activity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hollow out in the form of a furrow or groove

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

furrow; groove; rut

Context example:

furrow soil

Hypernyms (to "rut" is one way to...):

cut into; delve; dig; turn over (turn up, loosen, or remove earth)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

rut (a groove or furrow (especially one in soft earth caused by wheels))

 Context examples 

The track which guided him was one so seldom used that in places it lost itself entirely among the grass, to reappear as a reddish rut between the distant tree trunks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a very dark night, and a thin rain began to fall as we turned from the high road into a narrow lane, deeply rutted, with hedges on either side.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Suddenly, they saw its back end drop down, as into a rut, and the gee-pole, with Hal clinging to it, jerk into the air.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Nor was there any way, out of her inexperience, for her to know that the cosmic feel she caught of him was that most cosmic of things, love, which with equal power drew men and women together across the world, compelled stags to kill each other in the rutting season, and drove even the elements irresistibly to unite.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But by coolly giving the reins a better direction herself they happily passed the danger; and by once afterwards judiciously putting out her hand they neither fell into a rut, nor ran foul of a dung-cart; and Anne, with some amusement at their style of driving, which she imagined no bad representation of the general guidance of their affairs, found herself safely deposited by them at the Cottage.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Then, spurring his steed, the young squire rode at the top of his speed after his companions, and overtook them just at the spot where the trees fringe off into the moor and the straggling hamlet of Hordle lies scattered on either side of the winding and deeply-rutted track.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)