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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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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.