nut

English Online Dictionary. What means nut‎? What does nut mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: nŭt, IPA^(key): /nʌt/
• (California, New Zealand, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [nɐt]
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /nʊt/
• Rhymes: -ʌt

Etymology 1

From Middle English nute, note, from Old English hnutu, from Proto-West Germanic *hnut, from Proto-Germanic *hnuts (“nut”), from a root *knu- possibly shared with Proto-Celtic *knūs and Latin nux (“nut”). Based on the form of the nouns and the restriction of the root to Germanic, Celtic and Italic, it has been argued to be of non-Indo-European (substrate) origin.

See also West Frisian nút, Dutch noot, German Nuss, Danish nød, Swedish nöt, Norwegian nøtt.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Sex senses?”)

Noun

nut (plural nuts)

2. (food, broadly) Any of various hard-shelled seeds or hard, dry fruits from various families of plants.
   2. (botany, strictly) Such a fruit that is indehiscent.
4. (hardware) A piece of hardware, typically metal and typically hexagonal or square in shape, with a hole through it having internal screw threads, intended to be screwed onto a threaded bolt or other threaded shaft.

   Hypernyms: fastener, hardware

   Hyponyms: acorn nut, barrel nut, square nut, wing nut, wingnut, T-nut
5. (slang) The head. [from 19th c.]

   Synonyms: coconut, bonce, noodle
6. (slang) A crazy person.

   Synonyms: loony, nutbag, nutcase, nutter; see also Thesaurus:mad person
7. (colloquial) An extreme enthusiast.

8. (UK, Ireland, slang, dated) An extravagantly fashionable young man. [1910s–1920s]
   • 1914, "Saki", ‘The Dreamer’, Beasts and Superbeasts, Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 323:

     ‘You are not going to be what they call a Nut, are you?’ she inquired with some anxiety, partly with the idea that a Nut would be an extravagance which her sister's small household would scarcely be justified in incurring [...].

9. (anatomy) Senses related to male genitalia.
   2. (archaic) The glans (structure at the extremity of the penis or of the clitoris).
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:nut.
   4. (vulgar, slang, chiefly plural) A testicle.

      Synonyms: ball, (taboo slang) bollock, nads

   6. (vulgar, slang, uncountable) Semen, ejaculate, cum.
   7. (vulgar, slang, countable) Orgasm, ejaculation; especially release of semen; cumshot
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:nut.
10. (US, slang) Monthly expense to keep a venture running.
11. (US, slang) The amount of money necessary to set up some venture; set-up costs.
12. (US, slang) A stash of money owned by an extremely rich investor, sufficient to sustain a high level of consumption if all other money is lost.
13. (music, lutherie) On stringed instruments such as guitars and violins, the small piece at the peghead end of the fingerboard that holds the strings at the proper spacing and, in most cases, the proper height.
14. (typography slang) En, a unit of measurement equal to half of the height of the type in use.
15. (climbing) A shaped piece of metal, threaded by a wire loop, which is jammed in a crack in the rockface and used to protect a climb. (Originally, machine nuts [sense #2] were used for this purpose.)
16. (poker, attributive) The best possible hand of a certain type. Compare nuts (“the best possible hand available”).

17. (firearms) The tumbler of a gunlock.
18. (nautical) A projection on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock in place.
19. (archaic) A small rounded cake or cookie.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: ナット (natto)

Translations

Verb

nut (third-person singular simple present nuts, present participle nutting, simple past and past participle nutted or (nonstandard) nut)

1. (mostly in the form "nutting") To gather nuts.
2. (UK, transitive, slang) To hit deliberately with the head; to headbutt.

   Synonyms: butt, Glasgow kiss, Liverpool kiss, loaf
4. (slang, mildly vulgar) To orgasm; to ejaculate.

   Synonyms: blow a nut, bust a nut; see also Thesaurus:ejaculate

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:nut.
5. (slang) To hit in the testicles.
6. (slang) To defeat thoroughly.

Etymology 2

Noun

nut (plural nuts)

1. Alternative form of nuth (“Indian nose ring”)

Etymology 3

Variant of not.

Interjection

nut

1. (Scotland, colloquial) No.

References

Anagrams

• NTU, Tun, tun

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [nʊ̠t]

Noun

nut (uncountable)

1. use, benefit

References

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

Dutch

Etymology

From the adjective Middle Dutch nutte (“useful”), or from Middle Dutch nut (“yield”), from Old Dutch *nut, from Proto-Germanic *nutją, *nutjō (“profit, yield, utility”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to seize; grasp; use”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nʏt/
• Hyphenation: nut
• Rhymes: -ʏt
• Homophone: Nuth

Noun

nut n (uncountable)

1. use, point, utility, sense

   Synonym: zin

2. benefit

   Synonym: voordeel

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: nut

Adjective

nut (comparative nutter, superlative nutst)

1. (obsolete) useful

   Synonym: nuttig

Declension

Derived terms

• onnut

Middle English

Adverb

nut

1. Alternative form of not

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse hnútr.

Noun

nut m (definite singular nuten, indefinite plural nuter, definite plural nutene)

1. a tall, rounded mountain top

References

• “nut” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse hnútr.

Noun

nut m (definite singular nuten, indefinite plural nutar, definite plural nutane)

1. a tall, rounded mountain top

References

• “nut” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Swedish

Alternative forms

• not

Etymology

From Old Norse hnot, from Proto-Germanic *hnuts.

Noun

nut f

1. nut

Declension

Descendants

• Swedish: nöt

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnut/
• Rhymes: -ut
• Syllabification: nut
• Homophone: Nut

Noun

nut f

1. genitive plural of nuta

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nʌʔ/

Interjection

nut

1. (Southern Scots) no; used to show disagreement or negation.

Unua

Noun

nut

1. Alternative form of naut

Further reading

• Elizabeth Pearce, A Grammar of Unua (2015)