Butter

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: but=ter

CIDE DICTIONARY

Butter, n. [OE. botere, butter, AS. butere, fr. L. butyrum, Gr. boy`turon; either fr. boy`s ox, cow + turo`s cheese; or, perhaps, of Scythian origin. Cf. Cow.].

•  An oily, unctuous substance obtained from cream or milk by churning.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any substance resembling butter in degree of consistence, or other qualities, especially, in old chemistry, the chlorides, as butter of antimony, sesquichloride of antimony; also, certain concrete fat oils remaining nearly solid at ordinary temperatures, as butter of cacao, vegetable butter, shea butter.  [1913 Webster]

Butter boat, a small vessel for holding melted butter at table. -- Butter flower, the buttercup, a yellow flower. -- Butter print, a piece of carved wood used to mark pats of butter; -- called also butter stamp. Locke. -- Butter tooth, either of the two middle incisors of the upper jaw. -- Butter tree (Bot.), a tree of the genus Bassia, the seeds of which yield a substance closely resembling butter. The butter tree of India is the Bassia butyracea; that of Africa is the Shea tree (Bassia Parkii). See Shea tree. -- Butter trier, a tool used in sampling butter. -- Butter wife, a woman who makes or sells butter; -- called also butter woman. [Obs. or Archaic]

Butter, v. t. 

•  To cover or spread with butter.  [1913 Webster]

  "I know what's what. I know on which side
  My bread is buttered."  [1913 Webster]
•  To increase, as stakes, at every throw or every game.  Johnson.  [1913 Webster]

Butter, n. 

 One who, or that which, butts.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Butter, n. & v.
--n.
1 a a pale yellow edible fatty substance made by churning cream and used as a spread or in cooking. b a substance of a similar consistency or appearance (peanut butter).
2 excessive flattery.
--v.tr. spread, cook, or serve with butter (butter the bread; buttered carrots).

Idiom

butter-and-eggs any of several plants having two shades of yellow in the flower, e.g. toadflax. butter-bean
1 the flat, dried, white lima bean.
2 a yellow-podded bean. butter-cream (or -icing) a mixture of butter, icing sugar, etc. used as a filling or a topping for a cake. butter-fingers colloq. a clumsy person prone to drop things. butter-knife a blunt knife used for cutting butter at table. butter muslin a thin, loosely-woven cloth with a fine mesh, orig. for wrapping butter.
butter-nut
1 a N. American tree, Juglans cinerea.
2 the oily nut of this tree. butter up colloq. flatter excessively. look as if butter wouldn't melt in one's mouth seem demure or innocent, probably deceptively.

Etymology

OE butere f. L butyrum f. Gk bouturon

THESAURUS

Butter

albumen, batter, bedaub, besmear, blandness, blarney, blubber, bonnyclabber, breeze, butter up, buttermilk, cataplasm, certified milk, cheese, clabber, clay, coat, condensed milk, cornstarch, cream, crush, curd, cushion, dab, dairy products, daub, dental pulp, dough, down, egg white, eiderdown, enamel, fair words, feather bed, feathers, fleece, floss, flue, fluff, foam, fulsomeness, gaum, gel, gelatin, get around, ghee, gild, glair, glibness, glop, gloss, glue, gluten, goo, gook, goop, gruel, gumbo, gunk, half-and-half, heavy cream, honey, honeyed words, incense, jam, jell, jelly, jolly, kapok, kid along, lacquer, lay it on, lay on, light cream, loblolly, margarine, mash, milk, molasses, mucilage, mucus, mush, nonfat dry milk, oil, oiliness, oleo, oleomargarine, overdo it, pap, paper pulp, paste, pillow, pith, plaster, play up to, plush, porridge, poultice, prime, pudding, puff, pulp, pulp lead, pulpwood, puree, putty, rag pulp, raw milk, rob, rubber, satin, sauce, semifluid, semiliquid, silk, size, skim milk, slap on, slather, smash, smear, smear on, smoothness, smugness, soap, soft soap, soft words, soft-soap, soften up, soup, sour cream, sponge, spread on, spread with, squash, starch, sticky mess, string along, stroke, suaveness, suavity, sulfate pulp, sulfite pulp, swansdown, sweet talk, sweet words, syrup, tar, thistledown, treacle, unctuousness, undercoat, velvet, wax, whey, whipping cream, white lead, wood pulp, wool, yogurt, zephyr

ROGET THESAURUS

Butter

Flattery

N flattery, adulation, gloze, blandishment, blandiloquence, cajolery, fawning, wheedling, captation, coquetry, obsequiousness, sycophancy, flunkeyism, toadeating, tuft- hunting, snobbishness, incense, honeyed words, flummery, bunkum, buncombe, blarney, placebo, butter, soft soap, soft sawder, rose water, voice of the charmer, mouth honor, lip homage, euphemism, unctuousness, flattering, adulatory, mealy-mouthed, honey-mouthed, honeyed, smooth, smooth-tongued, soapy, oily, unctuous, blandiloquent, specious, fine-spoken, fair spoken, plausible, servile, sycophantic, fulsome, courtierly, courtier-like, ad captandum.

VB flatter, praise to the skies, puff, wheedle, cajole, glaver, coax, fawn upon, faun upon, humor, gloze, soothe, pet, coquet, slaver, butter, jolly, bespatter, beslubber, beplaster, beslaver, lay it on thick, overpraise, earwig, cog, collogue, truckle to, pander to, pandar to, suck up to, kiss the ass of, pay court to, court, creep into the good graces of, curry favor with, hang on the sleeve of, fool to the top of one's bent, lick the dust, lay the flattering unction to one's soul, gild the pill, make things pleasant, overestimate, exaggerate.

Softness

N softness, pliableness, flexibility, pliancy, pliability, sequacity, malleability, ductility, tractility, extendibility, extensibility, plasticity, inelasticity, flaccidity, laxity, penetrability, clay, wax, butter, dough, pudding, alumina, argil, cushion, pillow, feather bed, down, padding, wadding, foam, mollification, softening, soft, tender, supple, pliant, pliable, flexible, flexile, lithe, lithesome, lissom, limber, plastic, ductile, tractile, tractable, malleable, extensile, sequacious, inelastic, aluminous, remollient, yielding, flabby, limp, flimsy, doughy, spongy, penetrable, foamy, cushiony, flaccid, flocculent, downy, edematous, oedematous, medullary, argillaceous, mellow, soft as butter, soft as down, soft as silk, yielding as wax, tender as chicken.

Oil

N oil, fat, butter, cream, grease, tallow, suet, lard, dripping exunge, blubber, glycerin, stearin, elaine, oleagine, soap, soft soap, wax, cerement, paraffin, spermaceti, adipocere, petroleum, mineral, mineral rock, mineral crystal, mineral oil, vegetable oil, colza oil, olive oil, salad oil, linseed oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, nut oil, animal oil, neat's foot oil, train oil, ointment, unguent, liniment, aceite, amole, Barbados tar, fusel oil, grain oil, rape oil, seneca oil, hydrate of amyl, ghee, heating oil, #2 oil, No, 2 oil, distillate, residual oils, kerosene, jet fuel, gasoline, naphtha, stearin.