| 释义 |
▪ I. gutter, n.1|ˈgʌtə(r)|
Forms: 3–5 goter, 4 godere, gooter, gotur, guter, 4–5 gotere, 5 gotyr, guttyr, gutur, 5–6 guttur, 5–7 guttar, gutture, 6 gotter, gutt(e)re, Sc. gutar, guttour, 4– gutter.
[a. OF. gutiere (12th c. in Littré), goutiere (13th c.), mod.F. gouttière fem. (= Pr., Sp. gotera, Pg. goteira), also OF. gou(t)tier masc. (1325 in Godef.), f. goutte drop (see gout n.1).]
†1.
a. A watercourse, natural or artificial; in later use, a small brook or channel. In 14–15th c. often used to render L. stillicidium (shower), catarractes (cataract, deluge), etc. Obs.
a1300E.E. Psalter lxxi[i]. 6 He sat douncome..Als goters droppand þe erthe ogaine. 1382Wyclif Gen. viii. 2 The wellys of the see and the goterys of heuene ben closid. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 181 Þe ryuer Danubius..is..i-ladde in to dyuerse places of þe cite by goteres [L. canalibus] vnder erþe. 1398― Barth. De P.R. xiii. xvi. (Tollem. MS.), To renewe and refresche pondes fresche water is lad and brouȝte by goderes [1495 gutters] condites and pipes. c1440Promp. Parv. 206/1 Gotere vndyr þe grownde, cataduppa, cataracta. c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 799/44 Hic gurges, a gotyr. 1551Turner Herbal i. B vij b, Henbayne..groweth..about guttures and ditches. 1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. 564 Some standing Lake Which neighbour Mountains with their gutters make. 1601Holland Pliny I. 137 He [Tigris] takes his way vnder the earth through certain blinde gutters. 1675Providence (Rhode Isl.) Rec. (1893) IV. 39 On ye East sid of a little gutter on ye south side of a swompe. 1785Burns Holy Fair vii, Swankies young, in braw braid-claith, Are springin owre the gutters. 1797B. Trumbull Hist. Connecticut I. 24 In the low lands, on the banks of the rivers, by the brooks and gutters, there was a variety and plenty of grapes. 1855Thoreau Cape Cod iii. (1894) 40 We crossed a brook..called Jeremiah's Gutter.
b. A furrow or track made by running water.
1586D. Rowland tr. H. de Mendoza's Lazarillo (1677) D 2 a, A great wide Gutter which the raine had made. 1637Rutherford Lett. cxxxviii. (1894) 267 Prisoners of hope must run to Christ, with the gutters that tears have made on their cheeks. 1704Addison Italy (1705) 164 The rude Prospects of many Rocks rising one above another, of the deep Gutters worn in the Sides of 'em by the Torrents of Rain [etc.]. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede v, There had been some heavy storms of rain, and the water lay in deep gutters on the sides of the gravel-walks.
c. Austral. gold-mining. The lower part of the channel of an old river of the Tertiary period containing auriferous deposits.
1856S. Davison Let. 13 Aug. in W. B. Clarke Res. S. Gold Fields N.S.W. (1860) iv. 50 Pebble-covered local gold in evenly-spread beds or linear troughs of leads or gutters. 1864J. Rogers New Rush 55 Duffers are so common And golden gutters rare. 1888F. Hume Mad. Midas i. i, The gutter proved remunerative enough to keep the mine going, and pay all the men.
2. A shallow trough fixed under the eaves of a roof, or a channel running between two sloping roofs, to carry off the rain-water.
1354Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 92 In mercede j hominis mundantis guteres circa ecclesiam pro ij vicibus 6d. 1382Wyclif 2 Sam. v. 8 The goters of the hows eues. 1472Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 246, 12d. solut. pro reparacione unius guttur plumb. cameræ. 1522Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading 16 Paid to the plumer for metal to Sowder the gutters iijs iiijd. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 29 Water they save likewise from their houses, by gutters at the eves, which carry it down to cisterns. 1789P. Smyth tr. Aldrich's Archit. (1818) 85 Experience has taught men to carry off the droppings from their shelving roofs by placing gutters in them. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 220 Bridged Gutters—Gutters made with boards, supported below with bearers, and covered over with lead. 1861D. Cook P. Foster's D. iii, Dax's window opened on to a gutter.
3. a. A hollowed channel running at the side or (less commonly) along the middle of a street, to carry away the surface water.
1408Durham Acc. Roll in Eng. Hist. Rev. XIV. 517 Soluta..laborariis..facientibus unam gutteram lapideam et illam in dicto Watergate ponentibus. 1449–50Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 276 Pro emendacione et le pavyng j gutter juxta capellam, iijs. iiijd. 1553in Halliwell Shaks. (1887) II. 141 That every tenaunt do scour and kep cleane ther gutteres or dyches in the same lane. 1615J. Stephens Satyr. Ess. 165 Hee cannot doe so much good as a Fellow that sweepes gutters. 1622Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 58 A Gutter is of a less size, and of a narrower passage and current then a Sewer is; and as I take it, a Gutter is the diminutive of a Sewer. 1712Addison Spect. No. 317 ⁋9 Went to the Club. Like to have faln into a Gutter. 1834West Ind. Sketch Bk. II. 2 Flagstones which slope from the houses towards the middle of the streets to form a gutter. 1840Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Cynotaph, note, All bare and exposed to the midnight dews Reclined in a gutter we found him. 1898Zangwill Dreamers Ghetto iv. 128 The gutters run blood.
b. fig. Taken as the typical haunt of persons, esp. children, of low birth or breeding.
c1846W. E. Forster in T. W. Reid Life (1888) I. vi. 169, I would strive..to get the children of the working classes out of the gutter, by educating them. 1882M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. iii. 95 The women I have cared for in days gone by have hardly got over their early affinity with the gutter. 1886Besant Childr. Gibeon i. i, To take a girl out of the gutter and pretend that she is a lady. 1890Hall Caine Bondman ii. i, If he came to die in the gutter, who should say that it had not served him right? 1896F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) LXII. 234/2 Slang of the slums and the gutter.
c. A channel forming a receptacle for dirt or filth; a sink. lit. and fig. Now dial.
c1440Promp. Parv. 206/2 Gotere, ad purgandum feces coquine. a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. Let. ii. (1536) 102 Thou Rome shalte be the syncke and gutter of the fylthynes of Asye. 1601Cornwallis Ess. ii. xxix. (1631) 36 A true thing out of the gutter of a false throat can hardly escape corrupting. 1718T. Gordon Cordial Low Spirits 30 Girding it 'till you have quite stopped up the Gutter through which the aforesaid excrements issue. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Gutter, Gutter-hole, a sink or kennel. The general sense of gutter is a passage for water particularly, but not exclusively, from the roofs of houses. But with us the idea of filth is inseparable from it.
d. Mud, filth. Chiefly Sc. (only pl.).
1785R. Forbes Poems Buchan Dial. 28 Sae smear'd wi' gutters was his buik, He stinket in his hide. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Gutter-slush, gutter, kennel dirt. ‘She fell down in the street, and her clothes were all over nothing but gutter.’ 1866Mitchell Hist. Montrose xxii. 162 She quenched his oratory with a mouthful of gutters.
4. A shallow trough or open conduit or pipe for the outflow of fluid.
1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 90 Under the rollers, there is a receiver..into which the liquor falls, and..runs under ground in a Pipe or gutter of lead. 1757A. Cooper Distiller i. xvi. (1760) 74 By placing in the middle of the tub a wooden Pipe or Gutter. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 417 Sometimes the trunk of a fir-tree, hollowed out, so as to form a kind of gutter, is placed in an inclined position. 1872Ellacombe Bell of Ch. in Ch. Bells Devon i. 204 The fused metal is carried at once from the furnace to the pit by means of a series of gutters.
†5.
a. A groove or elongated hollow in an animal or vegetable body. Obs. in gen. sense.
1553Udall Geminus' Anat. B iij b/2 Thys concauite or dyche or gutter [of the Nose]. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xl. 709 A rough harde stone, full of creastes and gutters, within whiche is a kernell lyke an Almonde. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 331 All which veins are easie enough to know, because that every one lyeth in a little gutter. 1607Markham Caval. ii. (1617) 8 His buttocke round, plumpe, and full, without either gutter or deuision of ioynts. 1616Read Descr. Body Man 20 The sinus of the gutture of the arme receiuing the cubit. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 42 These Seeds are separated from one another by Leaves folded into a Gutter.
†b. spec. Venery. One of the grooves in the ‘beam’ of a hart's ‘head’. Obs.
1576Turberv. Venerie 53 The thing that beareth the Antliers, Royals, and toppes, ought to be called the beame, and the little clyffes or streakes therein are called gutters. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Gutters, the little Streak in a Deer's Beam.
c. Ent. Applied to certain folds on the hinder wings of lepidoptera.
1828Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 360 Internal margin of the lower wings arched and projecting over the abdomen to form a gutter.
6. A groove or channel of artificial formation. Now only techn.
1555Eden Decades 159 They are curiously buylded with many pleasaunt diuises as turrettes, portals, gutters. 1594Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 23 A pistoll..hauing eight gutters somewhat deepe in the inside of the barrell. 1611Cotgr., Coulisse d'un arbaleste, the hollow furrow wherein the arrow lyes; we call it, the gutter, or chace. 1659Willsford Scales Comm., Archit. 31 The Dorick order,..this Column..more adorned then the last, to which some adde Flutings, or gutters. 1682Lond. Gaz. No. 1684/4 A black brown Gelding..three Gutters cut in his Hoof. 1833J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 106 The workman..ploughs out the gutter for the lodgment of the barrel [of a gun]. 1861Wynter Soc. Bees 187 The stamping shop, where girls, with inconceivable rapidity, place each wire beneath a die, and stamp exactly in the middle thereof two eyes, and two channels, or gutters as they are termed. 1888Sheffield Gloss., Gutter, a hollow or groove running down the centre of a knife spring.
7. In Printing = gutter-stick (see 8). Also in Bookbinding, ‘the white space between the pages of a book’ (Barrère and Leland Slang, 1889).
1841Savage Dict. Printing s.v., We now mean by the term Gutter, the piece of furniture that separates two adjoining pages in a chase, as in an octavo that between pages 1 and 16, in a duodecimo that between pages 1 and 24 and so on. 1888Jacobi Printers' Voc., Gutter, the ‘back’ margin or furniture of a sheet. This is the part of a sheet which when folded falls in the back of the book.
8. a. attrib. and Comb., as gutter-boy, gutter-brat, gutter-canal, gutter channel, gutter-girl, gutter-hole, gutter-level, gutter-lout, gutter-mongrel, gutter-snippet, gutter spout, gutter stone, gutter-sweeping, gutter water, gutter waterway, gutter work; gutter-bred, gutter-draggled, gutter-gorging, gutter-grubbing, gutter-like adjs.; gutter-wise adv.; gutter-bearer, ‘the sort of joist upon which the boarding for a gutter is laid’ (Dict. Archit. 1852); gutter-bird, the sparrow, hence fig., a disreputable person; gutter-board, a board forming the foundation on which is laid the lining-material forming the gutter itself; gutter-child, a child such as haunts the street gutters, one of low birth or breeding; gutter-crawling vbl. n., the action of driving a car, etc., slowly along a road close to the pavement and attempting to entice into it women, esp. prostitutes (cf. kerb-crawling); gutter-drift = sense 1 c; gutter-flag Austral. (see quot.); gutter-flanged a., having a flange shaped like a gutter; † gutter lane slang, the throat, gullet; gutter-ledge Naut. (see quot.); gutter-man, (a) a street vendor of cheap jewellery, fancy articles, toys, etc.; (b) (U.S.) Logging, one who removes underbrush, fallen trees, and other obstacles in making a gutter road; (c) one who cleans out the gutters of buildings; † gutter-master, (presumably) one who cleans out gutters; hence gutter-mastership; gutter-member Arch., a member made by decorating the outside face of a gutter with regularly spaced ornaments; gutter-merchant = gutter-man; gutter plane, a moulding-plane with a semi-cylindrical sole used in planing out gutters (Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 1884); gutter-plate Ship-building (see quots.); gutter road, the path or track followed in skidding logs (Terms Foresty & Logging, 1905); gutter-snippet, app. meant as a dim. of gutter-snipe; gutter-sparrow = gutter-bird; gutter-splint, a splint moulded to the shape of the limb; gutter-stall, the stall of a gutter-man; gutter-stick Printing, one of the pieces of furniture which separate pages in a form; gutter-tree, the Wild Cornel or Dogwood, Cornus sanguinea (Syd. Soc. Lex.); gutter-way, (a) = gutter n.1 2; (b) = gutter waterway; † gutter window, ? a window opening on to a gutter. Also gutter-blood, -snipe, -tile, etc.
1896Westm. Gaz. 18 Feb. 5/2 They seem to bear the same relation to ordinary dogs as the lowest *gutter-bird does to a respectable man. 1899Ibid. 14 Mar. 2/3 The sparrow has a strong idea in his impudent little head that everything belongs to him... This..will not do for such a refined city as Boston, and so the fiat has gone forth against the little gutter bird.
1703T. N. City & C. Purchaser 162 In these Plain-tile-gutters, there is a *Gutter-board laid which raises them. 1852Dict. Archit., Gutter-board.
1901G. K. Chesterton Defendant 15 We rate the *gutter-boys for their immorality.
1962K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed xii. 80 He was a *gutter-brat.
1877Ruskin Fors Clav. VII. lxxvi. 108 Any young *gutter-bred black⁓guard.
1946Koestler Thieves in Night i. iii. 23 The *gutter-canal that ran along the middle of the street as the serpent's inverted spine.
1564–78W. Bullein Dial. agst. Pest. (1886) 45 *Gutter chanilles uncleane kept.
1870Public Opinion 16 July 57 It is not these *gutter children alone for whom compulsion is wanted. 1890‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Miner's Right (1899) 102/2 There were no poor in rags, no houseless women, no aged paupers, no gutter children, no street boys, no out⁓casts.
1948Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. vi. 504 *Gutter-crawling is practised by mashers who run close to the sidewalk, hoping to pick up light-headed girls. 1968Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Nov. 3/5 Thirty-five men were fined..on ‘guttercrawling’ charges... The charges, under an Act promulgated last December alleged the men ‘loitered either to be accosted by a prostitute or for the purpose of inviting or soliciting any female to prostitute herself for pecuniary reward’.
1894Du Maurier Trilby I. 95 Her sordid, mercenary, little *gutter-draggled soul.
1887H. H. Howorth Mammoth & Flood 372 Numerous remains of vegetation, we are told, occur in the *gutter-drift in Victoria.
1869R. B. Smyth Goldf. Victoria 612 *Gutter-flags—Flags fixed on the surface to denote where the course of gutter or lead underground has been discovered.
1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. ii. 20 To roll the *gutter-flanged plate to the required form.
1909Daily Chron. 13 Nov. 3/1 A devoted priest, a noble *gutter-girl,..—these are Mrs. Baillie Saunders's stock-in-trade.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. i. Eden 116 *Gutter⁓gorging durty muds.
1795Coleridge Lett. (1895) 148 O God! that such a mind should fall in love with that low, dirty, *gutter-grubbing trull, Worldly Prudence!
1819Blackw. Mag. V. 636 Who having dined abroad, returning late, Besplash your stockings in the *gutter-hole. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Gutter, Gutter-hole, a sink or kennel.
1684S. G. Angl. Speculum 483 All goeth down *Gutter-lane (a small lane in the City). Appliable to great Gluttons and Drunkards. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Suit and Cloak, good store of..Liquor, let down Gutter-lane.
1769–80Falconer Dict. Marine, *Gutter-ledge, a cross bar laid along the middle of a large hatchway in some vessels, to support the covers, and enable them the better to sustain any weighty body.
1880Victorian Rev. 2 Feb. 656 The gutters had virtually sucked them dry, and had left no gold worth having above the *gutter-level.
1776E. M. da Costa Conchol. v. 117 The scoop (sinus) is the hollowed, or *gutter-like process placed side-ways of the beak, and lower down on the very lip.
1926D. H. Lawrence Plumed Serp. i. 8 A real *gutter-lout came to look at their counterslips.
1892Pall Mall G. 8 Apr. 6/1 For the past week the *gutter-men have been driving a brisk trade in Boat Race favours. 1904Dialect Notes II. 397 Gutterman, a term used in logging camps. 1921Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §970 Roofman; gutterman; sweeps roofs and removes dirt and other obstruction from guttering, rain pipes, etc., of large buildings.
1607Marston What you will iii. i, Francisco Soranzo and perfumer and muscat, and *gutter maister.
Ibid., If I make you not loose your office of *gutter Maister-ship, and you bee Skauenger next yeare well.
1896Daily News 4 Aug. 3/4 Fine weather brings people out, and enables the ‘*gutter merchant’ to display his stock-in-trade.
a1930D. H. Lawrence Phoenix (1936) 21 Not fit to be trusted with any dog but a *gutter-mongrel.
1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. i. 10 The *gutter-plates on the top of the floors, forming the flat central keelson. 1874Thearle Naval Archit. 72 It has been a common practice to place no longitudinal tie between the outer keel and the longitudinal combination of plates and angle irons on the top of the floors, known as the gutter plate and keelson.
1891R. Kipling Light that failed viii, She's a dissolute little scarecrow,—a *gutter-snippet and nothing more. 1931S. Beckett Proust 61 But he does not proceed pari passu with..the Parnassians to the ineffable gutter-snippets of François Coppée.
1890Tablet 20 Dec. 961 He denounced his late comrades as *gutter-sparrows.
1919W. Deeping Second Youth xxiv. 203 At his ease in a long cane chair, his left arm still in a *gutter-splint. 1957Encycl. Brit. IX. 577/2 Aluminium gutter splints are of value in some cases [of fracture] on account of their malleability and translucence to X-rays.
1647Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. 201 Would any wise man..trust to a *gutter-spout to quench his thirst, when he might go to a spring? 1839Longfellow Hyperion iv. iii, Then the whole scene changed, and he thought himself a monk's-head on a gutter-spout.
1889A. T. Pask Eyes Thames 166 Let us look again at the butcher's shop, and then at the *gutter stalls.
1683Moxon Printing §8. 29 *Gutter-sticks..are used to set between Pages on either side the Crosses... They have a Groove, or Gutter laid on the upper side of them, as well that the Water may drain away when the Form is Washed or Rinced, as that they should not Print, when through the tenderness of the Tinpan, the Plattin presses it and the Paper lower than ordinary.
1530Palsgr. 228/1 *Guttar stone.
1954W. Faulkner Fable (1955) 26 The African regiment recruited from the prison- and *gutter-sweepings of Europe.
1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 361 A lesser Conduit..carried the *Gutter-Water of several Streets.
1874Thearle Naval Archit. 123 In some cases, a *gutter waterway is fitted on the inside of the stanchions, the wood waterway being between the side plating and gutter waterway.
1908Daily Chron. 19 Aug. 3/4 Choked *gutter-ways, creepers stuffed with unsightly straw..induced him..to order that the sparrow nests should be removed from the walls and eaves of his house. 1923Man. Seamanship II. 280 To drain water from the decks..scuppers are fitted... These are led from the gutter⁓ways.
1620J. Doughty in Lismore Papers (1887) Ser. ii. II. 263 When he was in his howse [he] gote out att a *gutter window and soe escaped. 1679Bedloe Popish Plot 24 They ran together out at the Gutter-window.
1657W. Coles Adam in Eden xvii. 35 A..peece of soft wax, made a little hollow, *gutter⁓wise. 1611Cotgr., Caneleure,..*gutter-worke (in stone, or timber).
b. attrib. passing into adj. Brought up in or appropriate to the gutter; of a low or disreputable character. (Freq. in gutter press, gutter journalism, etc.)
1849J. O. O'Connell Recoll. Parl. Career I. v. 104 Feargus O'Connor carried the election..he was everywhere and everything;—speechifier,..gutter-agent, mob leader. 1851D. Jerrold St. Giles vii. 64 Could any of his gutter companions boast such greatness? 1884Vice-Adm. Maxse in Pall Mall G. 4 Mar. 2/1 All the gutter epithets which have been coined to express baffled malice and impotence. 1888Sat. Rev. 20 Oct. 450/2 Evident..to any person who..has had some experience of the ways of gutter journalism. Ibid., The gutter journalist. 1889Ibid. 16 Nov. 549/1 Mr. Conybeare had, according to a gutter journal, charged Sir Edward with saying..that [etc.]. 1889Swinburne Study B. Jonson 70 The accents of some gutter gaolbird. 1890Times 12 Mar. 5/1 The gutter language used by the Portuguese Republican Press. 1892Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poet. (1894) 235 The gutter slang of those reactionary dis⁓unionists. 1899Times (weekly ed.) 520/2 The gutter Press of Paris. 1900J. London Let. 1 Oct. (1966) 112 How different from the gutter attack of Robert Buchanan on Kipling and Besant! 1940‘G. Orwell’ Inside Whale 126 There is no clear reason why every adventure story should necessarily be mixed up with snobbishness and gutter patriotism. 1941Auden New Year Let. i. 24 Conscious Catullus, who made all His gutter-language musical. 1953Manch. Guardian Weekly 10 Dec. 4/4 Mr. Truman, a graduate of the Pendergast school of gutter politics, called the Red issue a ‘red herring’. 1955J. Thomas No Banners xviii. 165 He found himself cursing under his breath, using foul Cockney gutter-slang that normally would have appalled him. 1957‘P. Quentin’ Suspicious Circ. viii. 87 One of..those terrible gutter magazines which make fortunes unearthing people's private lives. 1958Wodehouse Cocktail Time v. 45 To..sell this information to the gutter press for what it will fetch. 1959Daily Tel. 9 Apr. 22/4 One of the cheapest forms of gutter electioneering.
▸ guttermouth n. colloq. (chiefly U.S.) = potty mouth n. at potty n. Compounds; freq. attrib.
1965G. Turner Waste of Shame ii. 33 Craig beckoned. ‘Come on, *guttermouth.’ 1976Daily Rev. (Hayward, Calif.) 18 Oct. 16/2 Customers who use the routine of hysterics..and plain guttermouth swearing. 1986Washington Post 14 Nov. (Weekend section) 31/1 If you can overlook..[his] guttermouth, you might even find the chauvinist has developed some small empathy for females. 2004Tri-Valley Herald (Pleasanton, Calif.) (Nexis) 15 Sept. Players hear some of the most guttermouth garbage imaginable.
▪ II. gutter, n.2|ˈgʌtə(r)|
[f. gut v. + -er1.]
One who guts.
1. One employed in disembowelling fish or animals. Also fig.
1780Young Tour Irel. I. 148, Fishermen 90, Gutters 40. 1851C. Cist Sk. Cincinnati 280 Here the animal falls into the hands of the gutter who tears out the inside, stripping at the rate of three hogs to the minute. 1854Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 43 Bevies of young women employed as gutters. 1883Chamb. Jrnl. 310 The wives and daughters [of the fishermen] are gutters or packers or salters. 1963Guardian 18 Sept. 10/6 Is it possible that..there is a clever summary in the last few pages..making the document easy work for an accomplished ‘gutter’ which I feel sure Mr Wilson is?
2. One who guts buildings.
a1734North Exam. ii. iv. §93 (1740) 277 He was a great Inquisitor of Priests and Jesuits, and Gutter (as the Term was for Stripping) of Popish Chapels.
▪ III. gutter, v.|ˈgʌtə(r)|
[f. gutter n.1]
1. a. trans. To make gutters in; to furnish with gutters; to channel or furrow with streams, tears, or the like.
1387Charters St. Giles (1859) p. x, Alswa betwene the chapellis, guteryt with hewyn stane to cast the watir owte, and to save the werc fro the watir. 1634–5Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 149 There is meadow land and bog, which being guttered ditched and drained..will be good and rich meadow. 1638Sandys Job xvi. 33 My cheeks are gutterd with my fretting teares. 1640Bp. H. King Serm. 51 Her wrinckled face, guttered with the Teares of her decay. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 418 A narrow Flooring, gutter'd, wall'd, and til'd. 1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 41 To discharge the Wet that might otherwise gutter the Walks. 1796Trans. Soc. Arts XIV. 122 The field..has been remarkably well drained and guttered. 1832J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1858) II. 269 Steps..once neatly fluted but now guttered by the weather. 1893Wiltsh. Gloss., Gutter, to drain land with open drains.
†b. To carry off (water) by means of gutters.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. xii. 289 Transplauntynge hem is best at yeeris too, So gutteryng [so MS. Bodl.] the water from hem shelue; Yf water stonde on hem, they beth fordo.
2. intr. Of water: To form gutters or gullies.
1632Lithgow Trav. vi. 282 The Brooke Cedron (which guttereth through the valley). 1670Narborough in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1694) 69, I looked very carefully in Gullies, and places where Water had guttered.
3. To flow in streams, to stream down.
1583Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 111 His mynd vnuariant doth stand, tears vaynelye doe gutter. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 72 That abundance of teares which fell guttering downe his cheekes. 1697Dryden Virg. æn. v. 261 Their lab'ring sides Are swell'd, and Sweat runs gutt'ring down in Tides. 1699Garth Dispens. v. Wks. (1771) 75 Tears of amber guttered down his cheeks. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home (1883) I. 331 You may see the young housewife, before the shower is ended, letting the raindrops gutter down her visage. 1863G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators III. 287 They must be fond of gold who can catch it by handfuls, guttering down like this in streams of fire. 1891E. Phillpotts Folly & Fresh Air vii. 117 A little stream that guttered down the hill-side.
†4. trans. To discharge in streams. Obs. rare.
a1618Sylvester Job iii. 346 My waies were bath'd in butter And Rocks about mee Rolls of Oyle did gutter. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 191 Darke and thicke clouds..guttered downe vpon vs huge and great drops of raine.
5. intr. Of a candle: To melt away rapidly by its becoming channelled on one side and the tallow or wax pouring down; to sweal. Also with down, out. (The chief current sense.)
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Gutter, to sweal, or run, as a candle sometimes does. 1753Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 236 The external coat, thus made, prevents them from guttering. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge lv, The candles flickered and guttered down. 1875Howells Foregone Concl. iv. 149 A crown of..red formed upon the..wick, which toppled over in the socket and guttered out with a sharp hiss.
quasi-trans.1891Baring-Gould Troubadour-Land vi. 68 My candle..guttered itself in no time into the tray of the candlestick.
transf.1869G. Meredith Let. 27 Dec. (1970) I. 409, I have turned Wendell Phillips like a drenching fireman's hose on a parson, and made him sputter and gutter and go to his wife to trim his wick. 1872T. Hardy Under Greenw. Tree i. vii, With..a nose guttering like a candle. 1917T. S. Eliot Prufrock 22 My self-possession flares up for a second... My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark.
6. to gutter along: to drag existence along ‘in the gutter’. nonce-use.
1883P. Robinson Sinners & Saints 44 They might have guttered along in helpless poverty..till old age found them in a workhouse. |