put

To physically place (sth or sb swh).

Noun business, finance

  1. Ellipsis of put option (“right to sell something at a predetermined price”)
    • He bought a January '08 put for Procter and Gamble at 80 to hedge his bet.
    • c. 1900, Universal Cyclopaedia Entry for Stock-Exchange A put and a call may be combined in one instrument, the holder of which may either buy or sell as he chooses at the fixed price.
  2. The act of putting; an action; a movement; a thrust; a push.
    • the put of a ball
    • The Stag's was a Forc'd put, and a Chance rather than a Choice. - 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists:...
  3. An old card game.
    • Among the in-door amusements of the costermonger is card-playing, at which many of them are adepts. The usual games are all-fours, all-fives, cribbage, and put. - 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Costermongers”, in London Labour...

Origin

From Middle English putten, pitten, pytten, puten, poten, from Old English putian, *pūtian ("to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung (“pushing, impulse, instigation, urging”)) and potian (“to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad”), both from Proto-West Germanic *putōn, from Proto-Germanic *putōną (“to stick, stab”), which is of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bud- (“to shoot, sprout”), which would make it cognate with Sanskrit बुन्द (bundá, “arrow”), Lithuanian budė, and budis (“mushroom, fungus”). Compare also related Old English pȳtan (“to push, poke, thrust, put out (the eyes)”). Cognate with Dutch poten (“to set, plant”), Low German paten (“to set, plant”), Danish putte (“to put”), Swedish putta, pötta, potta (“to strike, knock, push gently, shove, put away”), Norwegian putte (“to set, put”), Norwegian pota (“to poke”), Icelandic pota (“to poke”), Dutch...

Forms

puts putt

Related

call option

Noun obsolete

  1. A fellow, especially an eccentric or elderly one; a duffer.
    • Queer Country-puts extol Queen Bess's reign, And of lost hospitality complain. - 1733, James Bramston, The Man of Taste:
    • The old put wanted to make a parson of me, but d—n me, thinks I to myself, I'll nick you there, old cull; the devil a smack of your nonsense shall you ever get into me. - 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society,...
    • The Captain has a hearty contempt for his father, I can see, and calls him an old put, an old snob, an old chaw-bacon, and numberless other pretty names. - 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter...

Origin

Unknown. Perhaps related to Welsh pwt, itself possibly borrowed from English butt (“stub, thicker end”).

Forms

puts

Noun obsolete

  1. A prostitute.
    • And Mrs. Penny-a-hoist Pim, said Mr. Gorman. That old put, said Mr. Nolan. - 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:

Origin

From Old French pute.

Forms

puts

Verb

  1. To physically place (sth or sb swh).
    • She put her books on the table.
    • The police put him in a cell.
    • They put the new motorway right through the national park.

    Synonyms: locate

  2. To place in abstract; to attach or attribute; to assign.
    • The government put restrictions on vehicle imports.
    • I put £100 on the winning horse.
    • Don't put the blame on me.
  3. To bring or set (into a certain relation, state or condition).
    • Theſe Verſes Originally Greek, were put in Latin, - 1670, John Milton, “The [First] Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] ,...
    • Put your house in order!
    • He is putting all his energy into this one task.
  4. To express (something in a certain manner).
    • When you put it that way, I guess I can see your point.
    • To put it bluntly, he's an idiot.
    • To put it simply, we can't afford it.
  5. To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention.
    • I put it to you, Sir, that you are a thief and a liar.
    • to put a question; to put a case
    • 1708-1710, George Berkeley, Philosophical Commentaries or Common-Place Book Put the perceptions and you put the mind.
  6. To set as a calculation or estimate.
    • They have put the cost of repairs at around £10 million.
  7. To steer; to direct one's course; to go.
    • to put to sea
    • His fury thus appeased, he puts to land. - 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […],...
  8. To sell (assets) under the terms of a put option.
    • He got out of his Procter and Gamble bet by putting his shares at 80.
  9. To throw with a pushing motion, especially in reference to the sport of shot put. (Do not confuse with putt.)
    • He put the shot out beyond the 20-metre mark.
  10. To play a card or a hand in the game called "put".
  11. To lay down; to give up; to surrender.
    • No man hath more love than this, that a man put his life for his friends. - c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume IV, Oxford: At the University...
  12. To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige.
    • These wretches put us upon all mischief. - 1722, Jonathan Swift, The Last Speech of Ebenezer Elliston:
    • Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge - 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias...
    • Put me not to use the carnal weapon in my own defence. - 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and...

Forms

puts putting put putten no-table-tags glossary puttest puttedst putteth - putt

Related

putten

Derived

don't put all your eggs in one basket enough to put in one's eye force-put forthput hard put input I put it to you mama put misput never put off until tomorrow what you can do today not to put a tooth in it not to put too fine a point on it not to put too fine a word on it off-put offput output overput put a band-aid on a bullet wound put a blanket over putable put a block on put about put a brave face on put a bug in someone's ear