ass

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“
American readers will know better than I whether ass is really used in the United States to mean ` sexual intercourse. '

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Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun Any of several hoofed mammals of the genus Equus, resembling and closely related to the horses but having a smaller build and longer ears, and including the domesticated donkey.
  2. noun A vain, self-important, silly, or aggressively stupid person.
  3. noun The buttocks.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • American readers will know better than I whether ass is really used in the United States to mean ` sexual intercourse. ' —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 3
  • Other times things went missing, especially jewels and buttons from clothes kept in cupboards and drawers. —  The Shadow of the Wind
  • At first there was strong interest in buying it, as much for its notoriety as for the growing prestige of the neighbourhood, but none of the potential buyers made an offer after visiting the house. —  The Shadow of the Wind
  • What's happened? —  The Secret of Killimooin
  • She wasn't there. —  A World Out of Time
 

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Words tagged ass

donkey · hat · callipygian · kakopygian

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Ass has been looked up 751 times, favorited once, listed 27 times, and commented on once.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fool ·  beast ·  bitch ·  pig ·  butt ·  kid ·  cat ·  mule ·  idiot ·  bull ·  pussy ·  tit
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English asse, from Old English assa, perhaps of Celtic origin, ultimately from Latin asinus.
  2. Middle English ars, from Old English ears; see ors- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English as, ass, asse, from Anglo-Saxon assa, masculine (feminine assen, not *asse), an isolated form, perhaps adapted from Old Northumbrian assald, asald, asal (which is from the Celtic), the earlier form, of the common Teutonic type, being esol, esul = Old Saxon esil = Dutch ezel (later English easel, q. v.) = Old High German esil, Middle High German G. esel (later Danish esel, œsel) = Gothic (Moesogothic) asilus (cf. Irish and Gaelic asal = Manx assyl, and Old Bulgarian osĭlŭ = Bohemian osel = Polish osiel, osiol (barred l) = Russian oselū = Lithuanian asilas = Old Prussian asilis), prob. the same, with variant termination, as Icelandic asni, masculine, asna, feminine, = Swedish åsna = Danish asen (cf. Welsh asyn = Cornish asen = Breton azen); all apparently (the Slav. and Lithuanian forms through Teutonic) from Latin asinus (later Italian asino = Spanish Portuguese asno = Provencal asne = Old French asne, French ânc) = Greek ο\νος (orig. *οσνος?), an ass; perhaps ult. of Semitic origin; cf. Hebrew āthōn, a she-ass. Cf. German assel, especially in comp. keller-assel (also keller-esel), a wood-louse, so named from its color, from Latin asellus, a little ass, diminutive of asinus; cf. Greek ὁνος, a wood-louse.
  2. Scotch form of ash.
 

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