/stɹʌt/, [stɹɐt], [stɹʊ̈t]
OriginThe verb is derived from Middle English strouten, struten (“to bulge, swell; to protrude, stick out; to bluster, threaten; to object forcefully; to create a disturbance; to fight; to display one's clothes in a proud or vain manner”) [and other forms], from Old English strūtian (“to project out; stand out stiffly; to exert oneself, struggle”), from Proto-Germanic *strūtōną, *strūtijaną (“to be puffed up, swell”), from Proto-Indo-European *streudʰ- (“rigid, stiff”), from *(s)ter- (“firm; strong; rigid, stiff”).
The English word is cognate with Danish strutte (“to bulge, bristle”), Low German strutt (“stiff”), Middle High German striuzen (“to bristle; to ruffle”) (modern German strotzen (“to bristle up”), sträußen (obsolete, except in Alemannic)); and compare Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌿𐍄𐍃𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌻 (þrutsfill, “leprosy”), Old Norse þrútinn (“swollen”).
The noun is derived from the verb. Noun sense 2 (“instrument for adjusting the pleats of a ruff”) appears to be due to a misreading of a 16th-century work which used the word stroout (strouted (“caused (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell; strutted”)).
- intransitiveOf a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with the tail erect and spread out.
“Hark, hark, I heare, the ſtraine of ſtrutting Chanticlere cry cockadidle-dowe.”
“The pheasant strutteth about in the midst of flowers; / The turtle-dove cooeth, and the nightingale warbleth from the cypress.”
“He thought that whenne Thanksgyving came he'd looke soe payle & thynne, / He colde avoid ye usual role ye Turkye strutteth inne.”
- also, broadly, figuratively, intransitiveTo walk haughtily or proudly with one's head held high.
“He strutted about the yard, thinking himself master of all he surveyed.”
“[O]h, I ſhould remember him: do's he not hold vp his head (as it were?) and ſtrut in his gate?”
“[...] I trow it is enough to make a man forswear the very mother that bore him, and to wish that he had never had one, when one is cooped up in a gloomy hole like this, to watch a door within which st”
- broadly, transitiveTo walk across or on (a stage or other place) haughtily or proudly.
“Taking you and your colleagues as the model of modern times, I should almost fear that the John Bull of former days was as different from the John Bull of the present time, as is a broad-shouldered, f”
“The frantic father struts the stage, / And swells with true sublimity of rage / Against his son, who leads a wanton life, / And scorns the offer of a dowried wife.”
“Still garbed in notions wont to gird / Minds in the reign of George the Third, / He strutteth an embodied tameness / In a sober suit of sameness.”
- intransitive, obsoleteOften followed by out: to protuberate or stick out due to being full or swollen; to bulge, to swell.
“Sometimes [the clitoris] groweth to such a length that it hangeth without the cleft like a mans member, especially when it is fretted with the touch of the cloaths, and so strutteth and groweth to a r”
“If the right breaſt ſwell and ſtrut out the Boy is well, if it flag it is a ſign of miſcarriage, judge the ſame of the Girle by the left breaſt, when it is ſunk, or round and hard, the firſt ſignifies”
“The Pow'r appeas'd, with winds ſuffic'd the ſail, / The bellying canvas ſtrutted with the gale; [...]”
- obsolete, transitiveOften followed by out: to cause (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell.
“[H]e gains the glitt'ring prize, / And ſtruts the gaudy food of gazing eyes, / A thing—that oft his Footmen may deſpiſe.”
- also, figuratively, transitiveTo brace or support (something) by a strut or struts; to hold (something) in place or strengthen by a diagonal, transverse, or upright support.
“Masonry flying arches strutting the retaining walls in Chorley cutting, Manchester-Blackpool line, L.M.S.R.”
- intransitiveTo be attached diagonally or at a slant; also, to be bent at a sharp angle.
- also, figurativelyA step or walk done stiffly and with the head held high, often due to haughtiness or pride; affected dignity in walking.
“Putting on his hat, and thrusting both hands into the pockets of his trousers, he marched with a nonchalant strut out of the room, [...]”
- historicalAn instrument for adjusting the pleats of a ruff.
- A beam or rod providing support.
“This alteration will obviate the necessity for the injudicious iron struts which are now introduced between the backs of the columns and the face of the pilasters, and which, in a practical point of v”
“Replacing and Aligining Wing-tip Float Struts. Loosen the brace wires and stagger wires on the wing-tip float. Remove the bolts or pins from the strut fittings, both on the float and on the wing surfa”
“MacPherson struts are found attached to the front wheels of just about every front-drive car on the road and at the fronts of many rear-wheel-drive cars, as well. [...] The MacPherson strut is a singl”
- An act of strutting (“bracing or supporting (something) by a strut or struts (sense 1); attaching diagonally; bending at a sharp angle”); specifically, deviation (of the spoke of a wheel) from the normal position.
- obsoleteSwelling out due to being full; bulging, protuberant, swollen.
- Scotland, obsoleteDrunk, intoxicated; fou.
Formsstruts(present, singular, third-person) · strutting(participle, present) · strutted(participle, past) · strutted(past) · strut(infinitive) · strut(first-person, present, singular) · strutted(first-person, past, singular) · strut(present, second-person, singular) · struttest(archaic, present, second-person, singular) · strutted(past, second-person, singular) · struttedst(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · strutteth(archaic, present, singular, third-person) · strutted(past, singular, third-person) · strut(plural, present) · strutted(past, plural) · strut(present, subjunctive) · strutted(past, subjunctive) · strut(imperative, present) · -(imperative, past) · struts(plural)