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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

gut·ter       (gŭt'ər)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A channel at the edge of a street or road for carrying off surface water. A trough fixed under or along the eaves for draining rainwater from a roof. Also called regionally eaves spout, eaves trough, rainspout, spouting. A furrow or groove formed by running water. A trough or channel for carrying something off, such as that on either side of a bowling alley. Printing The white space formed by the inner margins of two facing pages, as of a book. A degraded and squalid class or state of human existence. v.   gut·tered, gut·ter·ing, gut·ters v.   tr. To form gutters or furrows in. To provide with gutters. v.   intr. To flow in channels or rivulets. To melt away through the side of the hollow formed by a burning wick. Used of a candle. To burn low and unsteadily; flicker. adj.   Befitting the lowest class of human life; vulgar, sordid, or unprincipled: gutter language; the gutter press. [Middle English goter, guter, from Old French gotier, from gote, drop, from Latin gutta.] Certain household words have proved important as markers for major U.S. dialect boundaries. The channels along the edge of a roof for carrying away rainwater (normally referred to in the plural) are variously known as eaves troughs or, less commonly, eaves spouts in parts of New England, the Great Lakes states, and, for the former, the West; spouting or rainspouts in eastern Pennsylvania and the Delmarva Peninsula; and gutters from Virginia southward. Along the Atlantic coast, the transition points have marked unusually clear boundaries for the three major dialect areas—Northern, Midland, and Southern—traditionally acknowledged by scholars of American dialects. Nowadays, however, Southern gutters seems to have become the standard U.S. term. According to the Dictionary of American Regional English, gutters has become well established in northern states along the Atlantic coast from Maine to New Jersey; in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri; and as far west as California. See Note at andiron.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
gutter  (n.)

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
gutter  (v.)

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

gutter
noun
1.	a channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater
2.	misfortune resulting in lost effort or money; "his career was in the gutter"; "all that work went down the sewer"; "pensions are in the toilet"
3.	a worker who guts things (fish or buildings or cars etc.)
4.	a tool for gutting fish
verb
1.	burn unsteadily, feebly, or low; flicker; "The cooling lava continued to gutter toward lower ground"
2.	flow in small streams; "Tears guttered down her face"
3.	wear or cut gutters into; "The heavy rain guttered the soil"
4.	provide with gutters; "gutter the buildings"

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

gutter

see in the gutter.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Gutter

Gut"ter\, n. [OE. gotere, OF. goutiere, F. goutti[`e]re, fr. OF. gote, goute, drop, F. goutte, fr. L. gutta.]

1. A channel at the eaves of a roof for conveying away the rain; an eaves channel; an eaves trough.

2. A small channel at the roadside or elsewhere, to lead off surface water.

Gutters running with ale. --Macaulay.

3. Any narrow channel or groove; as, a gutter formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.

Gutter member (Arch.), an architectural member made by treating the outside face of the gutter in a decorative fashion, or by crowning it with ornaments, regularly spaced, like a diminutive battlement.

Gutter plane, a carpenter's plane with a rounded bottom for planing out gutters.

Gutter snipe, a neglected boy running at large; a street Arab. [Slang]

Gutter stick (Printing), one of the pieces of furniture which separate pages in a form.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Gutter

Gut*ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Guttered; p. pr. & vb. n. Guttering.]

1. To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel. --Shak.

2. To supply with a gutter or gutters. [R.] --Dryden.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Gutter

Gut"ter\, v. i. To become channeled, as a candle when the flame flares in the wind.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Gutter

Heb. tsinnor, (2 Sam. 5:8). This Hebrew word occurs only elsewhere in Ps. 42:7 in the plural, where it is rendered "waterspouts." It denotes some passage through which water passed; a water-course. In Gen. 30:38, 41 the Hebrew word rendered "gutters" is _rahat_, and denotes vessels overflowing with water for cattle (Ex. 2:16); drinking-troughs.