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  1. scuttlebutt love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Slang Gossip; rumor.
  2. n. Nautical A drinking fountain on a ship.
  3. n. Nautical A cask on a ship used to hold the day's supply of drinking water.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Nautical, a cask or butt having a scuttle or hole cut in it for the introduction of a cup or dipper, and used to hold drinking-water. Also called scuttle-cask.

Wiktionary

  1. n. nautical, countable A butt with a scuttle, a keg of drinking water with a hole cut in it, on board ship.
  2. n. informal, uncountable Gossip, rumour, idle chatter.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Naut.) a butt or cask with a large hole in it, used to contain the fresh water for daily use in a ship.
  2. n. See scuttle butt.
  3. n. A drinking fountain on board a ship or at a naval station.
  4. n. The latest gossip; rumors.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a report (often malicious) about the behavior of other people

Etymologies

  1. scuttle +‎ butt. In sense of gossip, because sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare water cooler and furphy. (Wiktionary)
  2. scuttle1 + butt5. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. rumors
  1. scuttle-cask
  1. chatter

hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. report
  1. account

hyponyms (12)

Words that are more specific

  1. scandal
  2. grapevine
  1. earful
  2. malicious gossip
  1. rumour
  2. rumor
  1. hearsay
  2. pipeline
  1. word of mouth
  2. talk of the town
  1. dirt
  2. talk

same context (15)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. north-northeast
  2. up
  3. holdfast
  1. agitprop
  2. rift
  3. bogeymen
  1. dicks
  2. immobilization
  3. scorning
  1. biddies
  2. deckhand
  3. firefighting
  1. pharmacopoeia
  2. chock
  3. ecliptic

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. nautical

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Lists

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Comments

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  • reesetee Okay. Just didn't want to step on your bear claws. :-) Nov 30, 2007

  • chained_bear Umm... I vote you! Nov 30, 2007

  • reesetee So, c_b, which of us is doing the list? :-) Nov 30, 2007

  • chained_bear Link courtesy of reesetee (on the taken aback page). Nov 30, 2007

  • abraxaszugzwang Dwight, did you move the water cooler again just for the scuttlebutt? Mar 5, 2007

  • trivet The original water cooler? Mar 5, 2007

  • ecrivaine33 Maybe if I had spent less time keying into the words people were saying and more time making the rounds, I would have met more people, hmmm? LOL.

    But, what can I say, I am a logophile of the worst kind : ) Dec 15, 2006

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‘scuttlebutt’ has been looked up 2915 times, loved by 8 people, added to 47 lists, commented on 7 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.