Scuttlebutt Definition

skŭtl-bŭt
noun
A cask on a ship used to hold the day's supply of drinking water.
American Heritage
A drinking fountain on shipboard.
Webster's New World
Rumor or gossip.
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Scuttlebutt

Noun

Singular:
scuttlebutt
Plural:
scuttlebutts

Origin of Scuttlebutt

  • Alteration of scuttled butt cask with a hole cut into it scuttle to cut a hole in (the hull of a ship) butt Sense 2, probably from fact that sailors would exchange gossip while taking a drink from the cask

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • scuttle +"Ž butt. In sense of gossip, because sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare water cooler and furphy.

    From Wiktionary

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to scuttlebutt using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

Words Ending With

Unscrambles

scuttlebutt