rut1
/rʌt
/- This resulted in deep ruts and heavy vehicle tyre tracks leaving it looking like a ploughed field.
- Trees have been removed and deep wheel ruts can be seen among the overgrown weeds.
- It was winter and the delta was full when they found themselves on the notorious Swamp Road, a 25 km sticky, muddy and unpredictable mess of tracks and axle deep ruts.
Synonyms
- Some people in the chattering classes have characterised it as dull and in a rut but that is far from the truth.
- I knew I had it in me to try harder but we were both stuck in a rut and using drugs.
- At senior level, permanent staff who feel stuck in a rut often enter the contract market looking for a change in their job role and a better quality of life.
Synonyms
Derivatives
rutty
- The dust on the rutty overgrown road turned to muddy deep puddles as the rain set in and, on evenings when the skies cleared a little, killdeer and nighthawks could be heard once more.
- The more we drive in the same rutty tracks, the deeper the ruts become and the more difficult it is to respond to situations or live our lives in a fresh and open way.
- Wagons repeatedly broke down on the rutty roads, and men as well as horses were exhausted by the hardships of travel over the long distances.
Origin
Late 16th century: probably from Old French rute (see route).
In the days of horse-drawn vehicles a cartwheel travelling many times along the same track would carve out a deep groove or rut. The deeper the rut became, the more difficult it would be to follow any other route. Someone following a fixed, and probably rather tedious, pattern of behaviour is in a rut. Rut in this sense is probably from Old French rute, also the source of route (Middle English) which both go back to Latin rupta (via) ‘broken (way)’. Route is also the origin of routine (late 17th century) for something that is like travelling the same road again. Rupta is the source of rout (Middle English) for a decisive defeat, from the idea of a broken army. The rut of male deer is a different word. In the breeding season stags challenge one another by roaring calls, when they are in rut: here rut probably comes from Latin rugire ‘to roar’ (see also rail).
Rhymes
rut2
/rʌt/- Kidney mass thus increases in males from the stressful rut period in early winter to the summer months.
- Her father had often warned her to stay clear of male animals in rut, for they were dangerous.
- Guarding males are thought to forage less during the rut than do nonguarding males, possibly leading to greater fitness costs.
- Figure 3 shows mass change for bighorn rams 1 year and older in relation to the proportion of time spent in rutting activities during the rut from 2000-2002.
- The sparring between bulls during rutting season can be extremely violent.
- With only a couple of exceptions, rutting activity is finished or nearly so.
Derivatives
ruttish
- Sows that are ruttish will seek out the boar.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin rugitus, from rugire 'to roar'.