1805, "water cask kept on a ship's deck," from scuttle "opening in a ship's deck" (see scuttle (v.2)) + butt "barrel." Earlier scuttle cask (1777). Meaning "rumor, gossip" first recorded 1901, originally nautical slang, traditionally said to be from sailors' custom of gathering around the scuttlebutt
n. news; information; gossip. (The legend of origin is that the scuttlebutt was a butt [= cask, keg] of drinking water located near a scuttle [= hatch]. Sailors gathered there to exchange gossip.) : What's the scuttlebutt on the steeple clock? Why did it stop?
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Example sentences
Give us any scuttlebutt you might have of rumors of takeovers and acquisitions as such.
The tie-in was a rickety link to scuttlebutt on the web about it, but that's about it.
Yes, they rise and fall with every paranoid scuttlebutt of the marketplace, but the general direction is definitely north.
Everyone monitors the scuttlebutt about promotions and overtime far more diligently than their meteorological instruments.
Scuttlebutt from that conference has already started fueling speculation about how important this new dinosaur might be.
It was written in the optimistic belief that open debate beats backroom scuttlebutt.
Office scuttlebutt has it that he has been dismissed.
Because the winner has yet to step forward, the scuttlebutt was even more open-ended.