butter, n.1
Forms:
OE–ME butere, ME buttere, ME boter(e, botter, butre, ME buttur, ME butture, buttir, buttyr, botyr, boture, bottre, 16 butyr, ME– butter.(Show Less)
Etymology: Old English butere weak feminine (in compounds buttor-); < Latin butyrum, < Greek βούτυρον. So Old Frisian butera, botera, Middle Dutch bōter(e, botre, Dutch boter, Middle Low German botter, late Old High German (10th or 11th cents.) butera, Middle High German, modern German butter, all from Latin.
The Greek is usually supposed to be < βοῦς ox or cow + τυρός cheese, but is perhaps of Scythian or other barbarous origin.
1.
a. The fatty substance obtained from cream by churning. It is chiefly used for spreading on bread (see bread and butter n.), and in cookery.
c1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 194
Wið geswell, genim þas ylcan wyrte myllefolium mid buteran gecnucude.
a1300 Havelok 643
Bred an chese, butere and milk.
a1325
(▸c1250)
Gen. & Exod.
(1968)
l. 1014
Bred kalues fleis and flures bred And buttere.
1377 Langland Piers Plowman B. v. 444
Bothe bred and ale · butter, melke, and chese.
c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 56
Buttyr or botyr [King's Cambr. butture], buturum.
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. vii. sig. Kv
Euery promyse that thou therin doest vtter, Is as sure, as it were sealed with butter.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 318
The fattest Butyr is made of Ewes milke.
1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year 92
I laid in..Salt-butter and Cheshire Cheese.
a1862 H. T. Buckle Misc. Wks.
(1872)
I. 307
The Greeks were acquainted with butter, but never ate it.
c1000—a1862(Hide quotations)
b. to make butter and cheese of : ? to confound, bamboozle. (Cf. Greek τυρεύειν.)
1642 Tract conc. Schisme 11
They made butter and cheese one of another.
1642—1642(Hide quotations)
c. (to look) as if butter would not melt in one's mouth : said contemptuously of persons of excessively demure appearance.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 620/1
He maketh as thoughe butter wolde nat melte in his mouthe.
1552 H. Latimer Serm. Lord's Prayer II. v. 79
These fellows..can speak so finely, that a man would think butter should scant melt in their mouths.
1738 Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 43
She looks, as if Butter wou'dn't melt in her Mouth; but I warrant, Cheese won't choak her.
1850 Thackeray Pendennis II. xxii. 223
She smiles and languishes, you'd think that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
1530—1850(Hide quotations)
d. melted butter: butter melted with water, flour, etc., used as a sauce. clarified or run butter : butter melted and potted for culinary use.
1709 J. Addison Tatler No. 192. ⁋1
A Plate of Butter which had not been melted to his Mind.
1807 W. Windham Speeches Parl.
(1812)
III. 46
It was the sort of poverty of conception, reproached by some foreigner to English cookery, that we had but one sauce, and that that sauce was melted butter.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. i. 11
I've thickened the butter.
1879 M. C. Tyree Housekeeping Old Virginia 102
Dish, and serve with drawn butter and parsley.
1709—1879(Hide quotations)
e. formerly used as an unguent; esp. in the preparation called May butter (see quots.).
1643 J. Steer tr. Fabricius Exper. Chyrurg. viii. 34
Let him apply the..Ointment of Sweet Butter thereto.
1718 J. Quincy Pharmacopœia Officinalis iii. xi. 476
Butyrum Majale, May Butter. This is made by melting fresh Butter that has been made up without any Salt, in the Sun; which is to be repeated until it grows of a whitish Colour. This is a very trifling Medicine, and of no use but as any simple Unguent, or plain Lard may be.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word).
1643—1753(Hide quotations)
f. fig. Unctuous flattery. (Cf. butter v.) colloq.
1823 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 14 309
You have been daubed over by the dirty butter of his applause.
1880 World 13 Oct.
A lavish interchange of compliments, the butter being laid on pretty thick.
1823—1880(Hide quotations)
†2. ? A dish or confection made with butter. Obs.
a1640 J. Day & H. Chettle Blind-beggar
(1659)
sig. K2
The old woman my Mother..could have taught thee how to a made butter, and flap-jacks, fritters, pancakes, I and the rarest fools.
a1640—a1640(Hide quotations)
3. transf.
a. As a name for various substances resembling butter in appearance or consistence, as butter of almonds n. = almond butter n. butter of cacao n. a white unctuous substance obtained from the seeds of the cacao. butter of mace n. (the substance which exudes from the African butter-tree). shea butter n. = butter of mace n. and similar products, called generically vegetable butters. butter of wax n. a butyraceous oil, obtained from wax by distillation. rock butter n. a mineral composed of alum combined with iron, which exudes as a soft butter-like paste from certain aluminiferous rocks [see quot. 1811 and cf. German berg-butter].
c1440 Anc. Cookery in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ.
(1790)
447
Botyr of Almondes. Take almonde mylke, and let hit boyle, and in the boylinge cast therto a lytel wyn or vynegur.
1682 N. Grew Idea Philos. Hist. Plants 19 in Anat. Plants
No Oyl which remained liquid..but instead of that a Butyr, almost of the Consistence and Colour of the Oyl of Mace.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Wax
By Chymistry, Wax yields a white thick Oil, resembling Butter; whence the Chymists call it Butter of Wax.
1811 J. Pinkerton Petralogy I. 117
The kamennoie maslo, or rock butter, a fat yellowish substance of a penetrating smell, being a mixture of alum and fluid bitumen.
1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 68/2
The most important vegetable butters are produced by the Bassia butyracea..and certain palms, such as the Cocos butyracea and the Elæis Guineensis.
1861 Our Eng. Home 151
Almonds..were boiled until the liquor became a delicious cream, from which was made the famous butter of almonds.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. at Myristica
[The fixed oil of nutmegs] is extracted by pressure, and forms what is called butter of mace.
c1440—1866(Hide quotations)
b. esp. in Chem., an old name of several anhydrous chlorides, as butter of antimony n., butter of arsenic n., butter of arsenic n., butter of bismuth n., butter of tin n., butter of zinc n.
1651 J. French Art Distillation iii. 71
Oil or Butter of Antimony.
1802 R. Chenevix in Philos. Trans.
(Royal Soc.)
92 164
The muriatic salts, formerly known by the strange name of butters of the metals.
1812 H. Davy Elements Chem. Philos. 407
The only known compound, bismuth and chlorine..called butter of bismuth.
1812 H. Davy Elements Chem. Philos. 377
Butter of zinc.
1876 J. Harley Royle's Man. Materia Med.
(ed. 6)
260
Butter of Antimony is an energetic caustic.
1651—1876(Hide quotations)
c. A perfumed fat obtained by inflowering or maceration with a heated fat.
1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 526
For the manufacture of perfumes for the handkerchief the greases now known as pomades, butters, or philocomes are treated with rectified spirit of wine..which practically completely abstracts the odour.
1885—1885(Hide quotations)
Compounds
C1. General comb.
a. Attributive.
butter-cart n.
1828 M. R. Mitford Our Village
(1863)
III. 129
[They] would run to meet the butter-cart as if it were a carriage and four.
1828—1828(Hide quotations)
butter-cask n.
1706 London Gaz. No. 4383/1
An Act..for Amending of the Law, in relation to Butter-Casks.
1847 Moir in Rural Cycl. I. 592
The lime is pre-eminently suited for the manufacture of butter-casks.
1706—1847(Hide quotations)
butter-churn n.
1589 in H. Hall Society in Elizabethan Age
(1886)
201
A butter-churn, 3s.
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind ix. 240
In modern India, butter churns are worked with a cord.
1589—1865(Hide quotations)
butter-crock n.
butter-dairy n.
1784 J. Twamley Dairying Exemplified 81
A near relation of mine, who kept a Butter Dairy.
1784—1784(Hide quotations)
butter-dealer n.
butter-dew n.
1780 British Topogr. II. 777
Mr. Van's account of butter-dew that fell in the provinces of Munster and Leinster.
1780—1780(Hide quotations)
butter-dish n.
1572 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories N. Counties Eng.
(1835)
I. 349
xxxix butter Dishes.
1861 I. M. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. xxxiii. 814
An ornamental butter-dish.
1572—1861(Hide quotations)
butter-firkin n.
1640 Debate in J. Rushworth Hist. Coll.: Third Pt.
(1692)
I. 151
The..marking of Butter-Firkins.
1640—1640(Hide quotations)
† butter-kit n. Obs.
1567 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories Archdeaconry Richmond
(1853)
209
Ij butterkitts.
1567—1567(Hide quotations)
butter-merchant n.
1808 C. Vancouver Gen. View Agric. Devon viii. 231
The butter-merchants in London.
1808—1808(Hide quotations)
† butter-monger n. Obs.
1720 London Gaz. No. 5879/4
William Dixon..Buttermonger.
1720—1720(Hide quotations)
butter-pot n.
1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xvii. 139
A great Butter-pot full of fresh Cheese.
1865 E. Meteyard Life J. Wedgwood I. 125
The butter-pot was a coarse cylindrical vessel..formed of clay.
1693—1865(Hide quotations)
butter-shop n.
1773 Gentleman's Mag. 43 579
The poor man, who keeps a butter-shop in Newgate-market.
1831 Blackwood's Mag. 55
He has carefully collected, preserved, published, and transmitted to the butter-shops, all the hyperbolical bombast.
1773—1831(Hide quotations)
† butter-skep n. Obs.
1572 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories N. Counties Eng.
(1835)
I. 249
One butter-skepp.
1572—1572(Hide quotations)
butter-tub n.
1570 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories N. Counties Eng.
(1835)
I. 318
Buttertubbes, scuttles and other stuff.
1737 Compl. Family-piece
(ed. 2)
i. i. 95
Take a Butter-tub.
1570—1737(Hide quotations)
b. Objective gen.
butter-maker n.
1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede I. i. xii. 242
He actually dared not look at this little buttermaker for the first minute or two.
1859—1859(Hide quotations)
butter-making n.
1751 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 19 June
(1966)
II. 485
I expect Immortality from the Science of Butter makeing.
1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede I. i. vii. 152
The linen butter-making apron, with its bib.
1751—1859(Hide quotations)
c. Similative.
butter-bright adj.
1868 G. M. Hopkins 17 July in Jrnls. & Papers
(1959)
176
The sun coming out..with a butter-bright lustre.
1868—1868(Hide quotations)
butter-colour adj.
1665 J. Rea Flora i. ix. 52
Dutches Brancion is a fair large flower, with long round-pointed leaves, of a deep shining Scarlet-colour, with deep butter-colour edges.
1665—1665(Hide quotations)
butter-coloured adj.
1894 Daily News 20 Mar. 3/2
A deep frill of butter-coloured lace.
1894—1894(Hide quotations)
butter-like adj.
1700 W. Salmon Pharmacopœia Bateana
(ed. 2)
i. ix. 380/2
A Butter-like Oil.
1802 W. Paley Nat. Theol. xiii. 261
A small nipple, yielding upon pressure a butter-like substance.
1964 M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol.
(ed. 8)
xi. 157
To give a butter-like flavour to margarine.
1700—1964(Hide quotations)
butter-smooth adj.
1920 J. Galsworthy In Chancery ii. v. 170
His grandfather's first gold hunter watch, butter-smooth with age.
1969 Observer 23 Mar. (Colour Suppl.) 27/2
(advt.)
There isn't even a clutch pedal. Just a Selective-Automatic transmission. With butter-smooth gears.
1920—1969(Hide quotations)
C2. Special comb.: See also butter-box n., butterbur n., buttercup n., butterfly n., butterwort n., etc.
† butter-ale n. Obs. = buttered ale n. at buttered adj. 2b.
1666 S. Pepys Diary 17 Mar.
(1972)
VII. 75
Home, having a great cold..so to bed, drinking butter-ale.
1666—1666(Hide quotations)
butter-and-egg man n. U.S. slang a wealthy, unsophisticated man who spends money freely.
1926 H. C. Witwer Roughly Speaking 229
A couple of big butter and egg men from Verona, New Jersey.
1927 Daily Express 31 Aug. 8/7
‘Butter and egg man’ is an American slang expression practically equal to our term ‘greenhorn’, that is, a man of money who spends lavishly and is an easy prey of the gold-digger and other unscrupulous persons.
1948 Antioch Rev. Spring 105
The ‘butter-and-egg’ man who startles the foreign lecturer with blunt questions.
1926—1948(Hide quotations)
butter and eggs n. a popular name for several flowers which are of two shades of yellow, esp. Toadflax ( Linaria vulgaris) and varieties of Narcissus.
1787 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Brit. Plants
(ed. 2)
II. 649
Toad-flax. [Butter and Eggs. Worcestershire. ST.].
1880 R. Jefferies Round about Great Estate 83
In shady woodlands the toadflax or butter-and-eggs is often pale,—a sulphur colour.
1787—1880(Hide quotations)
butter and tallow tree n. (see quot.).
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 46
The Butter and Tallow-tree of Sierra Leone, which owes its name (Pentadesma butyracea) to the yellow greasy juice its fruit yields when cut.
1830—1830(Hide quotations)
butter-back n. a kind of wild duck (U.S.).
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr.
(new ed.)
I. 213
Little black and white duck, called Butter Back (Anas minor picta).
1796—1796(Hide quotations)
butter-badger n. (dial.) an itinerant butter-factor.
1857 Fraser's Mag. 56 355
His father was..a butter-badger.
1857—1857(Hide quotations)
† butter-bag n. Obs. a contemptuous epithet for a Dutchman (cf. butter-box n.).
1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ ii. xi. 13
The butterbag Hollander.
1645—1645(Hide quotations)
butter-bake n. Sc. a butter biscuit.
1828 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 24 910
He..thumped butter-bakes with his elbows to some purpose.
1828—1828(Hide quotations)
butter-barrel n. = butter-cask n. at Compounds 1a; also dial. a barrel-churn.
1862 W. Barnes Rhymes Dorset Dial. I. 6
The butter-barrel An' cheese wring.
1862—1862(Hide quotations)
butter-basher n. slang a new driver of a taxi-cab.
1939 H. Hodge Cab, Sir? xv. 216
Contemptuous cabmen, therefore, called these blacklegs ‘Butter-bashers’.
1939—1939(Hide quotations)
butter-bird n. a name for the Bobolink (U.S.).
1883 Standard 26 Dec.
They [bobolinks]..grow so fat that they receive the name of ‘butter birds’.
1883—1883(Hide quotations)
† butter-bitten adj. Obs. ? given to biting butter (cf. bitten adj. 4).
1573 G. Gascoigne Hundreth Sundrie Flowres sig. Ddii
The Dutche with butterbitten iawes.
1573—1573(Hide quotations)
butter-boat n. a vessel for serving melted butter in; used fig. of lavish adulation (colloq.).
1787 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 821/2
His mustard-glass and butter-boat were overturned.
1807 Byron To Miss Pigot 5 July
Upset a butter-boat in the lap of a lady.
1865 Sat. Rev. 7 Jan. 16/2
That kind of praise which feels like the butter-boat down one's back.
1866 J. E. H. Skinner After Storm I. 181
He praised some things and gave advice about others, using the butter-boat less freely than is customary at volunteer inspections.
1787—1866(Hide quotations)
butter-boy n.
1939 H. Hodge Cab, Sir? x. 134
During my ‘butter-boy’ period.
1939 H. Hodge Cab, Sir? xv. 215
The new driver is called a ‘Butter-Boy’.
1960 C. Ray Merry Eng. 26
[The] owner-driver..is called a ‘butter-boy’ when he first appears on the rank, taking the butter from the older hands' bread, they say.
1939—1960(Hide quotations)
butter-bush n. an Australian tree, Pittosporum phylliræoides, of which the wood is used for turnery and the leaves as fodder.
1885 Outing Nov. 180/2
A thick hedge of butter-bush.
1936 I. L. Idriess Cattle King xxviii. 252
The rabbits had killed all the white wood, apple-bush and butter-bush.
1885—1936(Hide quotations)
butter-cake n. a rich cake usu. containing butter, sugar, flour, and eggs.
1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery xv. 139
(heading)
To make a Butter Cake.
a1896 G. Du Maurier Martian
(1897)
53
Scotch butter-cake.
1963 Times 11 Mar. 13/5
Irish butter cakes... Serve hot or cold.
1747—1963(Hide quotations)
butter cloth n. a thin loosely woven cloth with a fine mesh used primarily as a wrapping for butter.
1885 O. Wilde Lett.
(1962)
172
My wife has a huge bill against you—for your meat-safe and the buttercloth.
1900 Daily News 16 Feb. 6/7
The veil should be..of..any of the bright colours as produced in butter cloth.
1885—1900(Hide quotations)
butter colour n. (a) the colour of butter; (b) a preparation used to give a good colour to butter and butter substitutes (Cent. Dict. 1889).
1894 Daily News 20 Mar. 3/1
Yellowish cream-colour, called butter-colour by the modistes.
1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 573/1
Improved Butter Color... 1 Gallon Cans.
1894—1895(Hide quotations)
butter-cooler n. a vessel for keeping butter cool when brought on the table.
1790 Pennsylvania Packet 7 Dec. 3/3
Butter coolers.
1875 G. H. Lewes Probl. Life & Mind II. 135
The china service and glass butter-cooler.
1884 Internat. Health Exhib. Official Catal. 112/1
Ice Jugs and Butter Coolers.
1790—1884(Hide quotations)
butter cow n. U.S. a cow that yields rich cream.
1877 4th Rep. Vermont State Board Agric. 1876–7 46
We..believe that the Jersey as a butter cow has the advantage of at least the average life time of man.
1877—1877(Hide quotations)
butter cream n. a creamed mixture of butter and sugar, etc., used as filling or topping for cake.
1937 Fowler & West Food for Fifty 121
Butter cream,..1 lb. sugar, powdered, 5 Eggs [etc.].
1950 W. H. Evans Spoth's Cake Making & Decoration 195
Butter cream (smooth) for icing and decorating birthday cakes.
c1983 McDougalls Better Baking 22/2
When cold, cut in two and sandwich with coffee butter cream.
1937—c1983(Hide quotations)
butter cross n. a market-cross near which butter is sold.
1883 F. Marryat Moment Madness III. 170
Their old-world institutions and buildings—their butter crosses and market steps.
1883—1883(Hide quotations)
butter-cutter n. the name of an insect (? corruption of bud-cutter n. at bud n.1 Compounds 2).
1719 G. London & H. Wise J. de la Quintinie's Compl. Gard'ner
(ed. 7)
178
The end of their new Shoots intirely cut off by a little black round Insect, called Buttercutter.
1719—1719(Hide quotations)
butter-dock n. (see quot.).
1863 R. C. A. Prior On Pop. Names Brit. Plants 36
Butter-dock, from its leaves being used for lapping butter, whence the Scotch name of it, Smair~dock, Rumex obtusifolius.
1863—1863(Hide quotations)
butter-duck n. U.S. (see quot.).
1857 J. G. Swan Northwest Coast 357
The Colonel saw a ‘butter-duck’ in a shallow creek... These ducks are the black surf-duck (Fuligula perspicillata).
1857—1857(Hide quotations)
butter-factor n. a tradesman who buys butter from the farmers to sell wholesale.
1808 C. Vancouver Gen. View Agric. Devon viii. 230
The butter-factors at Honiton.
1808—1808(Hide quotations)
butter fat n. the essential fats of pure butter; also attrib.
1889 in A. Davis Package & Print
(1967)
Pl. 69
Powdered milk without butter fat.
1899 Daily News 17 Feb. 8/3
The sample..afforded no evidence of the presence of fat other than butter fat.
1906 Macmillan's Mag. June 612
If wanting in butter-fat, it [sc. milk] was not fit for the purpose for which it had been sold.
1946 Nature 12 Oct. 522/1
The obvious technique for assessing levels of performance is milk and butter-fat recording.
1889—1946(Hide quotations)
butter-flip n. a local name of the Avocet.
1802 G. Montagu Ornithol. Dict.
Butterflip, vide Avoset.
1802—1802(Hide quotations)
butter-jags n. a dial. name for Lotus corniculatus, also for Medicago falcata.
1691 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words
(ed. 2)
Coll. 12
Butter-jags, the Flowers of the Trifolium siliqua cornuta.
1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. II. 461
Yellow Medick. Butterjags.
1691—1776(Hide quotations)
butter-knife n. a blunt knife used for cutting butter at table.
1850 Dickens David Copperfield lxi. 602
Fish-slices, butter-knives, and sugar-tongs.
1856 Trans. Mich. Agric. Soc. 7 268
Eleven butter knives.
1870 ‘F. Fern’ Ginger-snaps 54
Some houses contain only silver soup-ladles, others a superabundance of butter-knives.
1850—1870(Hide quotations)
butter-lamp n. a lamp fed with butter instead of oil.
1883 J. Gilmour Among Mongols vi. 83
The altar on which a butter-lamp was then burning.
1883—1883(Hide quotations)
butter-leaves n. a name for Atriplex hortensis and Rumex alpinus.
1789 W. H. Marshall Rural Econ. Glocestershire
(E.D.S.)
Butter-leaves, the leaves of the Atriplex hortensis, or garden orach; which dairywomen in general sow in their gardens, annually, [for packing butter in].
1789—1789(Hide quotations)
butter letter n. a letter issued on ecclesiastical authority giving permission to eat butter in Lent.
1893 Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 5/3
In Italy, butter is prohibited [in Lent]... The Northerners, however,..would have none of this, and special ‘butter-letters’ were consequently dispatched to them from the obliging Vatican.
1893—1893(Hide quotations)
butter-man n. a man who makes or sells butter; also Naut. a schooner rigged in a particular way.
1802 Edinb. Rev. 1 51
Butter-men..are scarcely ever attacked by the plague.
1885 Daily Tel. 26 Nov.
[on Rigs] He believed that this name [butter-man] was given in consequence of numbers of this kind of craft trading to Holland for butter.
1802—1885(Hide quotations)
† butter-mark n. Obs. = butter-print n. 1.
1483 Cath. Angl. 50
Buttir marke.
1483—1483(Hide quotations)
butter-mould n. (see quot.).
1861 I. M. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. xxxiii. 814
Butter-moulds, or wooden stamps for moulding fresh butter.
1861—1861(Hide quotations)
butter-mouth n. attrib. a contemptuous epithet for a Dutchman = butter-bag n.
a1549 A. Borde Fyrst Bk. Introd. Knowl.
(1870)
147
I am a Flemyng, what for all that?.. ‘Buttermouth Flemyng’, men doth me call.
a1549—a1549(Hide quotations)
butter muslin n. = butter cloth n.
1902 Connoisseur II. No. 8. p. xvii
Frilled Butter Muslin.
1903 C. W. Walker-Tisdale & T. R. Robinson Soft Cheesemaking 34
Instead of paper, the cheese is done up in butter muslin.
1906 C. W. Walker-Tisdale & T. R. Robinson Buttermaking 55
Place a damp butter-muslin over the roller and butter-board.
1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 193/1
The coarser muslins, such as butter muslin, are used for household purposes, for example, straining liquids.
1902—1951(Hide quotations)
butter oil n. that part of refined cotton-seed oil which is used in making oleomargarine.
1894 Dairy Rev. Aug. 46/2
Some makers used to prepare the annatto in butter oil.
1894—1894(Hide quotations)
butter paper n. a semi-transparent waterproof wrapping-paper for butter, cream cheese, etc.
1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 573/1
Waxed Butter Paper, grease proof.
1895—1895(Hide quotations)
butter-pat n. a small piece of butter rolled or shaped into some ornamental form for the table.
1844 Ainsworth's Mag. 6 547
The two oars appeared to be playing the parts of butter-pats with him.
a1953 D. Thomas Under Milk Wood
(1954)
30
My crisp toast-fingers, my home-made plum and butterpat.
1844—a1953(Hide quotations)
butter-pear n. = beurré n.1
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique iii. xlix. 537
Garden, tender and delicate peares, such as..butter peare.
1719 G. London & H. Wise J. de la Quintinie's Compl. Gard'ner
(ed. 7)
52
The Burree..It's call'd the Butter Pear, because of its smooth, delicious, melting soft Pulp.
1600—1719(Hide quotations)
butter-plate n. a plate for holding butter; also, a name for Ranunculus flammula.
1753 H. Walpole Corr.
(1837)
I. 203
The butter-plate is not exactly what you ordered, but I flatter myself you will like it as well.
1853 G. Johnston Terra Lindisfarnensis I. 26
Ranunculus Flammula, the Butter-Plate, a name expressive of the comparative flatness of the corolla.
1753—1853(Hide quotations)
† butter-quean n. Obs. = butter-whore n.
1650 H. More Observ. in Enthusiasmus Triumphatus
(1656)
106
You..scold more bitterly than any Butter-quean.
1650—1650(Hide quotations)
butter-rigged adj. Naut. (see quot. 1885, and cf. butter-man n.).
1881 W. C. Russell Ocean Free-lance III. iv. 121
The little wooden cabin of a butter-rigged schooner.
1885 Daily Tel. 26 Nov.
[on Rigs] A butter-rigged schooner's a vessel that sets her top-gallant sail flying. The yard comes down on the top~sail yard, and the sails is furled together.
1881—1885(Hide quotations)
† butter-root n. Obs. = butterwort n.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 645
In Yorkshire..it is called Butterwoorts, Butter roote, and white roote.
1597—1597(Hide quotations)
butter salt n. fine common salt in small crystals obtained by rapid evaporation of brine, used in salting butter.
1884 R. Holland Gloss. Words County of Chester
(1886)
Butter salt, salt-making term. A fine boiled salt, not stoved, used specially for making up butter.
1892 Cornhill Mag. Sept. 264
The unmoulded salt—locally termed ‘butter-salt’—is sent away in trucks.
1884—1892(Hide quotations)
butter scoop n. (see quot. 1902).
1872 O. W. Holmes Poet at Breakfast-table i. 2
As the market people run a butter-scoop through a firkin.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 358
The butter-scoop is of wood, and is sometimes perforated; it is used for taking the butter out of the churn.
1872—1902(Hide quotations)
butter-scotch n. (also dial. butterscot) a kind of toffee, chiefly composed of sugar and butter.
1855 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Yorks. Words 23
Butterscot, treacle ball, with an amalgamation of butter in it.
1865 M. E. Braddon Sir Jasper XXVI. 260
The vendors of toothsome butterscotch were blithe and busy.
1855—1865(Hide quotations)
butter-slide n. a slide (slide n. 9) made of butter or ice; also fig.
1887 Wilde in Court & Soc. Rev. 2 Mar. 207/2
He met with a severe fall, through treading on a butter-slide, which the twins had constructed.
1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 20
Ice to make slides (if very slippery sometimes called a butterslide).
1928 Observer 1 Apr. 22
It will do us all the good in the world to slip on a mental butter-slide now and again.
1887—1928(Hide quotations)
butter spade n. a wooden spatula used in cutting butter from a firkin or other vessel, or used (as one of a pair) for making up butter.
1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 572/2
Wooden Butter Spades and Ladles.
1906 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 119/1
An old Dublin butter-spade with ivory handle.
1895—1906(Hide quotations)
butter stamp n. = butter-print n. 1.
1881 Ogilvie's Imperial Dict.
(Annandale)
Butter-stamp, a piece of carved wood used to mark cakes of butter.
1881—1881(Hide quotations)
butter-stick n. a wooden implement used in working butter.
1836 Southern Lit. Messenger 2 480
To beat the collected ends of the fingers with an implement..made like a butterstick.
1836—1836(Hide quotations)
butter substitute n. a substance used as a substitute for butter in food.
1888 Times 3 Jan. 9/5
Hereafter persons who eat butter substitutes will have to avow openly their meanness whether of spirit or of purse.
1906 Macmillan's Mag. June 607
What are termed ‘butter-substitutes’,—in other words, fraudulent adulterants.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 5 Aug. 2/2
Vegetarians use very extensively a butter substitute derived from the fat of nuts.
1888—1908(Hide quotations)
butter-toast n. (more commonly buttered toast) toast spread with butter.
1826 R. Polwhele Trad. & Recoll. II. 381
I found time to..treat him with butter-toast for his supper, and butter-toast for his breakfast.
1826—1826(Hide quotations)
butter tongs n. (see quot).
a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech.
Butter-tongs, an implement for cutting and transferring pieces of butter.
a1877—a1877(Hide quotations)
butter-tree n. name of Bassia butyracea and Bassia Parkii.
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 181
The Butter Tree of Mungo Park was also a species of Bassia.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot.
Bassia butyracea, the Indian Butter tree.
1878 H. M. Stanley Through Dark Continent II. xiii. 365
The Bassia Parkii, or Shea butter-tree..exudes a yellowish-white sticky matter.
1886 Notes & Queries 30 Jan. 98
The Shea tree or butter tree of Africa.
1830—1886(Hide quotations)
butter trier n. U.S. a segment of a tube used to pierce a firkin of butter for sample.
1868 Ann. Rep. Commissioner Patents 1867 II. 1218/1 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (40th Congr., 2nd Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc. No. 96) X
Butter Tryer... The scraper fits the trough of the gouge to remove the butter therefrom.
1868—1868(Hide quotations)
butter-weed n. a name for Erigeron canadensis and Senecio lobatus.
butter week n. (see quots.).
1762 P. Murdoch tr. A. F. Büsching New Syst. Geogr. I. 384
The Butter-week..when eating of flesh is forbidden and butter is allowed, is the week immediately preceding the great Fast of Lent.
1923 Daily Mail 3 Mar. 10
Maslenitza, or Butter Week, as the Russians call the fortnight preceding Lent, is always celebrated with feasting and drinking in Russia.
1762—1923(Hide quotations)
butter-weight n. formerly 18 or more ounces to the pound; hence, fig. for ‘good measure’ (obs.).
1733 Swift On Poetry 28
Yet, why should we be lac'd so straight; I'll give my [monarch] Butter-weight.
1808 C. Vancouver Gen. View Agric. Devon viii. 231
This salting in some measure accounts for the enlarged customary butter-weight in this country.
1733—1808(Hide quotations)
† butter-whore n. Obs. a scolding butter-woman.
1593 T. Nashe Strange Newes 49
Thou arrant butterwhore, thou cotqueane, & scrattop of scoldes.
1767 T. Bridges Homer Travestie
(ed. 2)
I. v. 164
You..scolded like a butter whore.
1593—1767(Hide quotations)
† butter-wife n. Obs. a woman who makes or sells butter.
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors vi. sig. B8
Not so moch as the poore butter wife, but she is spoyled.
?1542—?1542(Hide quotations)
butter-woman n. Obs.
a1616 Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well
(1623)
iv. i. 41
Tongue, I must put you into a Butter-womans mouth..if you prattle mee into these perilles.
1883 Punch 24 Feb. 87
The five Royal Commissioners in their butterwoman's cloaks.
a1616—1883(Hide quotations)
butter-worker n. a contrivance for pressing the butter-milk out of butter.
1854 Ann. Rep. Commissioner Patents 1853: Arts & Manuf. 247 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (33rd Congr., 1st Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc. No. 39, Pt. 1) VIII
Improvement in Butter Workers.
1872 1st Rep. Vermont State Board Agric. 1871–2 152
Work [it] again in butter-worker.
1883 26th Ann. Rep. Maine Board Agric. 1882 153
A good butter worker of some kind should be provided, and also a thermometer.
1885 J. J. Manley in Brit. Almanac 18
The butter-milk and water are carefully pressed out in one of Bradford's butter workers.
1908 Daily Chron. 16 Nov. 7/1
Churns, cream separators, and butter-workers are turned out by the million in Stockholm.
1854—1908(Hide quotations)
butter-working n. the moulding of butter into rolls, prints, pats, etc., for sale.
1906 Daily Chron. 25 Sept. 2/6
One is reluctantly obliged to conclude that butter-working is a lost art amongst grocers' assistants.
1906—1906(Hide quotations)
butter yellow n. a coal-tar dye formerly used for colouring butter, oils, etc.
1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl.
Butter Yellow.
1956 Nature 24 Mar. 576/2
Rat liver tumours induced by butter yellow.
1909—1956(Hide quotations)
Draft additions December 2012
butter icing n. †(a) a paste made from butter and flour, used to decorate savoury dishes (obs. rare); (b) = butter cream n. at Compounds 2.
1862 I. Williamson Pract. Cookery & Pastry
(ed. 5)
187
Butter Icing for Ornamenting Cold Fowls, Tongues, and other Meats. Beat over a stove till smooth half a pound of white fresh butter; then add three ounces of fine sifted flour.
1874 A. Gouffé tr. J. Gouffé Royal Bk. Pastry & Confectionery ii. viii. 262
Flavour some Butter Icing..with coffee, put it into a paper cone, and press it out on each cake and round the crust.
1966 Times 21 Nov. (Women's Features section) 13/5
Use a chocolate finger biscuit and secure with butter icing.
2003 M. Satz Heirloom Cookbk. 73/2
Frost one-half of cookies with a vanilla butter icing, and the other half with a cocoa icing.
1862—2003(Hide quotations)