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bunt

 - 7 dictionary results

bunt

1[buhnt]
–verb (used with object)
1. (of a goat or calf) to push with the horns or head; butt.
2. Baseball. to bat (a pitched ball) very gently so that it rolls into the infield close to home plate, usually by holding the bat loosely in hands spread apart and allowing the ball to bounce off it.
–verb (used without object)
3. to push (something) with the horns or head.
4. Baseball. to bunt a ball.
–noun
5. a push with the head or horns; butt.
6. Baseball.
a. the act of bunting.
b. a bunted ball.

Origin:
1760–70; orig. Brit. dial. (Central and S England): push, strike; of obscure orig.


bunter, noun

bunt

2[buhnt]
–noun
1. Nautical. the middle part of a square sail.
2. the bagging part of a fishing net or bagging middle area of various cloth objects.

Origin:
1575–85; orig. uncert.

bunt

3[buhnt]
–noun Plant Pathology.
a smut disease of wheat in which the kernels are replaced by the black, foul-smelling spores of fungi of the genus Tilletia.
Also called stinking smut.


Origin:
1595–1605; earlier, puffball; of uncert. orig.


bunted, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To bunt
bunt 1   (bŭnt)   
v.   bunt·ed, bunt·ing, bunts

v.   tr.
  1. Baseball

    1. To bat (a pitched ball) by tapping it lightly so that the ball rolls slowly in front of the infielders.

    2. To cause (a base runner) to advance or (a run) to score by bunting.

  2. To push or strike with or as if with the head; butt.

v.   intr.
  1. Baseball To bunt a pitched ball: The batter squared away to bunt.

  2. To butt.

n.  
  1. Baseball

    1. The act of bunting.

    2. A bunted ball.

  2. A butt with or as if with the head.


[Dialectal, to push, strike.]
bunt'er n.
bunt 2   (bŭnt)   
n.  
  1. The middle portion of a sail, especially a square one, that is shaped like a pouch to increase the effect of the wind.

  2. The pouchlike midsection of a fishing net in which the catch is concentrated.


[Perhaps from Swedish bunt or Danish bundt, both of Low German origin.]
bunt 3   (bŭnt)   
n.  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. Also called stinking smut.

[Origin unknown.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

bunt 
1825, "to strike with the head or horns," perhaps an alteration of butt (as a goat), or from M.E. bounten "to return." Baseball term is from 1889.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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