strut
Plural: struts
Noun
- a proud stiff pompous gait
- brace consisting of a bar or rod used to resist longitudinal compression
- A step or walk done stiffly and with the head held high, often due to haughtiness or pride; affected dignity in walking.
- An instrument for adjusting the pleats of a ruff.
- A beam or rod providing support.
- An act of strutting (“bracing or supporting (something) by a strut or struts; attaching diagonally; bending at a sharp angle”); specifically, deviation (of the spoke of a wheel) from the normal position.
Verb
Verb Forms: strutted, strutting, struts
- To walk with a pompous or self-important air.
- to walk with a lofty proud gait, often in an attempt to impress others
- "He struts around like a rooster in a hen house"
- Of a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with the tail erect and spread out.
- To walk haughtily or proudly with one's head held high.
- To walk across or on (a stage or other place) haughtily or proudly.
- Often followed by out: to protuberate or stick out due to being full or swollen; to bulge, to swell.
- Often followed by out: to cause (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell.
- To brace or support (something) by a strut or struts; to hold (something) in place or strengthen by a diagonal, transverse, or upright support.
- To be attached diagonally or at a slant; also, to be bent at a sharp angle.
Adj
- Swelling out due to being full; bulging, protuberant, swollen.
- Drunk, intoxicated; fou.
Examples
- He strutted about the yard, thinking himself master of all he surveyed.
- He watched his opponent STRUT after playing ’QUIZZED’ on a triple-word score.
Origin / Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English strouten, struten (“to bulge, swell; to protrude, stick out; to bluster, threaten; to object forcefully; to create a disturbance; to fight; to display one's clothes in a proud or vain manner”) [and other forms], from Old English strūtian (“to project out; stand out stiffly; to exert oneself, struggle”), from Proto-Germanic *strūtōną, *strūtijaną (“to be puffed up, swell”), from Proto-Indo-European *streudʰ- (“rigid, stiff”), from *(s)ter- (“firm; strong; rigid, stiff”).
The English word is cognate with Danish strutte (“to bulge, bristle”), Low German strutt (“stiff”), Middle High German striuzen (“to bristle; to ruffle”) (modern German strotzen (“to bristle up”), sträußen (obsolete, except in Alemannic)); and compare Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌿𐍄𐍃𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌻 (þrutsfill, “leprosy”), Old Norse þrútinn (“swollen”).
The noun is derived from the verb. Noun sense 2 (“instrument for adjusting the pleats of a ruff”) appears to be due to a misreading of a 16th-century work which used the word stroout (strouted (“caused (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell; strutted”)).
Synonyms
cock, prance, ruffle, sashay, swagger, tittup, Adrian Quist, Brahms, Brahms and Liszt, MWI, Mozart and Liszt, Oliver, Oliver Twist, a sheet in the wind, a sheet in the wind's eye, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed, bedrunken, befuddled, beliquored, besotted, besotten, bevvied, bibacious, bibulous, bingoed, binned, bladdered, blasted, blewed, blind, blind drunk, blitzed, blocked, blootered, blottoed, blue, bollocksed, bombed, boozy, bosky, bottled, budgy, bungalowed, bungfu, burlin', canned, clobbered, cocked, cockeyed, corned, crapulous, crocked, cunted, cup-shot, cup-shotten, cut, dead drunk, destroyed, disguised, distend, drunk, drunk as a piper, drunked up, drunken, ebriated, ebriose, elephant's, elephant's trunk, elevated, faced, fap, feeling no pain, fershnickered, flooey, floored, flush, flushed, flustered, fluted, fluthered, fou, four sheets in the wind, fresh, fried, frosted, fuckered up, fuckfaced, fuddled, full, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, gassed, gattered, gee-eyed, gesuip, ginned, gished, glorious, groggified, groggy, half cut, half lit, half polluted, half seas over, hammered, have drink taken, have the sun in one's eyes, hazed, high, high as a Georgia pine, high as a kite, hog-whimpering, honkers, hooched up, hooted, hoovered, hosed, how came you so, impaired, in liquor, in one's altitudes, in one's cups, in the bag, in the drink, inebriate, inebriated, inebrious, insober, insobrietous, inter pocula, jaked, jarred, juiced, juiced up, kaylied, kisky, lamped, langered, langers, larruped, lash, lashed, lathered, legless, liquored up, liquory, lit, loaded, looped, loopy, loose, lubed, lubed up, lubricated, lushed, mad with it, maggot, maggoted, mashed, maudlin, medicated, messed up, monged, mortal, mortalled, muddled, muggy, mullered, munted, muzzy, nappy, newted, nimptopsical, obfuscated, obliviated, off one's box, off one's head, off one's tits, oiled, oiled up, on the ran tan, ossified, out of it, out of one's box, out of one's face, out of one's head, out of sight, overcome, overrefreshed, overtaken, paralytic, parlatic, pickled, pie-eyed, pixilated, plastered, ploughed, plowed, polluted, potshot, potted, pounded, primed, puggled, quisby, raddled, rat-arsed, ratted, razzled, rib, ripe, ripped, rolling, rubbered, sauced, sauced up, scammered, schloshed, schnockered, screwed, scuttered, sewed up, shedded, shellacked, shicker, shickered, shitty, skunked, slammed, slarmied, slizzard, sloppy drunk, sloshed, smashed, snockered, snookered, snozzled, snuffy, soaken, sodden, sotted, sottish, souped-up, soused, sozzled, sozzly, spanceled, spannered, spiffed, splashed, spongy, sprung, squiffed, steamboats, stewed, stinking, stinko, stoated, stoned, stonkered, stotious, strut, swacked, tanked, tanked up, temulent, temulentive, three sheets in the wind, three sheets to the wind, throwed, tight, tight as a tick, tilted, tippled, tipsy, tired and emotional, toasted, top-heavy, top-heavy with drink, toping, trashed, tuned, twatfaced, twisted, wastey, wazzed, wazzocked, well-oiled, wellied, wet, whittled, withered, wobbly, woozy, worse for liquor, worse for wear, wrecked, zoned, zonked, zooted, zorched, zotzed
Scrabble Score: 5
strut: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordstrut: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
strut: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary