butter

[buht-er] /ˈbʌt ər/
noun
1.
the fatty portion of milk, separating as a soft whitish or yellowish solid when milk or cream is agitated or churned.
2.
this substance, processed for cooking and table use.
3.
any of various other soft spreads for bread:
apple butter; peanut butter.
4.
any of various substances of butterlike consistency, as various metallic chlorides, and certain vegetable oils solid at ordinary temperatures.
verb (used with object)
5.
to put butter on or in; spread or grease with butter.
6.
to apply a liquefied bonding material to (a piece or area), as mortar to a course of bricks.
7.
Metalworking. to cover (edges to be welded together) with a preliminary surface of the weld metal.
Verb phrases
8.
butter up, Informal. to flatter someone in order to gain a favor:
He suspected that they were buttering him up when everyone suddenly started being nice to him.
Origin
before 1000; Middle English; Old English butere < Latin būtȳrum < Greek boútȳron
Related forms
butterless, adjective
butterlike, adjective
unbuttered, adjective
Can be confused
budder, butter.
British Dictionary definitions for butter up

butter up

verb
1.
(transitive, adverb) to flatter

butter

/ˈbʌtə/
noun
1.
  1. an edible fatty whitish-yellow solid made from cream by churning, for cooking and table use
  2. (as modifier): butter icing, related adjective butyraceous
2.
any substance with a butter-like consistency, such as peanut butter or vegetable butter
3.
look as if butter wouldn't melt in one's mouth, to look innocent, although probably not so
verb (transitive)
4.
to put butter on or in
5.
to flatter
See also butter up
Word Origin
Old English butere, from Latin būtyrum, from Greek bouturon, from bous cow + turos cheese
Word Origin and History for butter up

butter

n.

Old English butere "butter," general West Germanic (cf. Old Frisian, Old High German butera, German Butter, Dutch boter), an early loan-word from Latin butyrum "butter" (source of Italian burro, Old French burre, French beurre), from Greek boutyron, perhaps literally "cow-cheese," from bous "ox, cow" (see cow (n.)) + tyros "cheese;" but this might be a folk etymology of a Scythian word.

The product was used from an early date in India, Iran and northern Europe, but not in ancient Greece and Rome. Herodotus described it (along with cannabis) among the oddities of the Scythians. Butter-knife attested from 1818.

v.

Old English buterian "spread butter on," from the same source as butter (n.). Figurative meaning "to flatter lavishly" is by 1798 (with up (adv.), in Connelly's Spanish-English dictionary, p.413). Related: Buttered; buttering.

butter up in Medicine

butter but·ter (bŭt'ər)
n.

  1. A soft yellowish or whitish emulsion of butterfat, water, air, and sometimes salt, churned from milk or cream and processed for use in cooking and as a food.

  2. A soft solid having at room temperature a consistency like that of butter.

Slang definitions & phrases for butter up

butter

noun

Flattery; cajolery; soft soap (1823+)

verb

(also butter up) To flatter shamelessly and fulsomely (1700+)

Related Terms

like shit through a tin horn


butter up in the Bible

(Heb. hemah), curdled milk (Gen. 18:8; Judg. 5:25; 2 Sam. 17:29), or butter in the form of the skim of hot milk or cream, called by the Arabs kaimak, a semi-fluid (Job 20:17; 29:6; Deut. 32:14). The words of Prov. 30:33 have been rendered by some "the pressure [not churning] of milk bringeth forth cheese."

Idioms and Phrases with butter up

butter up

Excessively praise or flatter someone, usually to gain a favor. For example, If you butter up Dad, he'll let you borrow the car. This term transfers the oily, unctuous quality of butter to lavish praise. [ c. 1700 ]

butter

also see: