Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Butty

But′ty

,
Noun.
(Mining)
One who mines by contract, at so much per ton of coal or ore.

Definition 2024


butty

butty

English

Pronunciation

  • (Northern English accents) IPA(key): /ˈbʊti/
    • Rhymes: -ʊti
  • (some other UK accents, US accents) IPA(key): /ˈbʌti/
    • Rhymes: -ʌti

Noun

butty (plural butties)

  1. (Britain, chiefly Northern England, New Zealand) A sandwich, usually with a hot savoury filling in a breadcake. The most common are chips, bacon, sausage and egg.
    Let's have a bacon butty!
See also

Etymology 2

Possibly from booty

Noun

butty (plural butties)

  1. (colloquial, Britain, now chiefly Wales and West Country) Friend.
  2. (mining) A miner who works under contract, receiving a fixed amount per ton of coal or ore.
    • 1913, DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 1
      But Alfred Charlesworth did not forgive the butty these public-house sayings. Consequently, although Morel was a good miner, sometimes earning as much as five pounds a week when he married, [...]
  3. A workmate.
  4. (archaic, Britain dialect, among boys) A drudge; a cat's paw; someone who does the hard work; someone who is being taken advantage of by someone else.
    Ah didn't play butty, ah promise yer. Yo all on yer mek the poor lad yer butty.
  5. (archaic, Shropshire dialect) One of a pair of shoes or gloves.
    I've fund one shoe, but canna see the butty' no-weer.
Synonyms
Derived terms
  • butty-brew
  • butty collier
  • butty-gang
  • butty-lark
  • butty-man
  • butty-piece
  • butty-shop
  • do butty
  • go butty
  • play butty

Verb

butty (third-person singular simple present butties, present participle buttying, simple past and past participle buttied)

  1. (archaic, Britain dialect) To work together; to keep company with.
    I butty with Jackson.
  2. (archaic, Shropshire dialect) To cohabit; to reside with another as a couple.
    Did'n'ee 'ear as Jim Tunkiss brought three children to the parish? I reckon 'e inna married, but 'e's bin buttyin' along o' one o' them Monsells.
  3. (archaic, Yorkshire dialect) To act in concert with intent to defraud; to play unfairly.

Synonyms

Etymology 3

butt (type of cart) + -y

Adjective

butty (comparative more butty, superlative most butty)

  1. (dated, dialect, Ireland, West Country) Resembling a heavy cart.
    Shall it be a giggy thing, or a carty thing, or a butty thing?

References

Wright, Joseph (1898) The English Dialect Dictionary, volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 468