English

paved street, gutter and storm drain, curb

Noun

gutter ‎(plural gutters)

1. A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water.
   • 1836, Charles F. Partington, The British Cyclopaedia of Literature, History, Geography, Law and Politics, page 202:

     They a not so clean as they might be, since the water [is] carried off by only one gutter, in the centre of t[he] street

2. A ditch along the side of a road.
   • 1902, Massachusetts. Highway Commission, Annual Report of the Massachusetts Highway Commission, volume 9:

     In nearly all of the towns the gutters are filled with vegetation, or have been neglected for so long a time that the roadway becomes its own drainage bed.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess:

     ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’

   • 2006, Henry Clark, Trophy Boy, page 122:

     As Mike parked the vehicle, its right wheels sank into an unpaved gutter gradually worn irregular and deep by the rush of rainwater flowing down the street.

   • 2008, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns:

     Gutters separated the sidewalk from the road on both sides and flowed with muddy water.

   • 2011, Judith Duncan, Murphy's Child:

     Meltwater gathered in the icy ruts of the unpaved road, the pressure wearing thin channels in the packed snow. Along the gutter the rivulets of spring runoff cut a course to the storm sewer

3. A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough.

   The gutters must be cleared of leaves a few times a year.

4. (bowling) A groove down the sides of a bowling lane.
5. A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement.
6. Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.
7. (typography) A space between printed columns of text.
8. (philately) An unprinted space between rows of stamps.
9. (Britain) A drainage channel.
10. The notional locus of things, acts, or events which are distasteful, ill bred or morally questionable.
11. (figuratively) A low, vulgar state.

    Get your mind out of the gutter.

    What kind of gutter language is that? I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• gutter on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• gout

Verb

gutter ‎(third-person singular simple present gutters, present participle guttering, simple past and past participle guttered)

1. To flow or stream; to form gutters. [from late 14th c.]
2. (of a candle) To melt away by having the molten wax run down along the side of the candle. [from early 18th c.]
3. (of a small flame) To flicker as if about to be extinguished.
4. (transitive) To send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins.
5. (transitive) To supply with a gutter or gutters.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

6. (transitive) To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 2

gut +‎ -er

Noun

gutter ‎(plural gutters)

1. One who or that which guts.
   • 1921, Bernie Babcock, The Coming of the King (page 151)

     A Galilean Rabbi? When did this Province of diggers in dirt and gutters of fish send forth Rabbis? Thou makest a jest.

   • 2013, Don Keith, ‎Shelley Stewart, Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story (page 34)

     An old, rusty coat hanger made a rudimentary fish-gutter.

Danish

Noun

gutter c

1. plural indefinite of gut

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

gutter m

1. indefinite plural of gutt