scuttlebutt
Syllables: scut·tle·butt/ˈskʌtəlbʌt/US/ˈskʌtəlˌbʌt/
scuttlebutt noun: originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship.
Noun
scuttlebutt (countable and uncountable, plural scuttlebutts)
- Originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship.
- [S]o they continue to fire as directed, until they are either sent down to the cock-pit themselves, or have a momentary respite from their exertions, when, choaked with smoke and gunpowder, they go aft to the scuttle-butt, to remove their parching thirst.1830, [Frederick Marryat], chapter VIII, in The King’s Own. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 93–94
- In this way, with an occasional break by relieving the wheel, heaving the log, and going to the scuttle-butt for a drink of water, the longest watch was passed away; […]1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXXII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 407
- Synonyms:
- scuttle-cask
- Gossip, idle chatter; also, rumour.
- "That's the scuttlebutt," Bronson said defiantly. "You got some pet coolie down there you want to put in Chien's place." / "Who told you that?" / "It's just scuttlebutt." / "Scuttlebutt travels on words." Holman's voice was shaking. "You tell me one man you heard say that, or I'll beat your fat...1962 September, Richard McKenna, chapter 9, in The Sand Pebbles […], New York, N.Y.; Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, →OCLC, page 137
- His resolve not to worry about unfounded scuttlebutt lasted about two minutes.2003, Len Custer, Called to Serve: A Historical Novel of the Korean War, New York, N.Y.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 211
- Synonyms:
- furphy, babble, bavardage, bibble-babble, blab, blabber, blabbing, blather, blathering, chatter
Verb
scuttlebutt (third-person singular simple present scuttlebutts, present participle scuttlebutting, simple past and past participle scuttlebutted)
- To spread (information) by way of gossip or rumour.
- The Pentagon rumor factory hasn't been very busy lately, but some reports are being scuttlebutted about that the U.S. military chiefs are being downgraded in the pecking order and that their military advice has been bypassed or ignored by the Carter Administration.1978 April, Lloyd Norman, “The Military Chiefs and Defense Policy: Is Anyone Listening?”, in L. James Binder, editor, Army, volume 28, number 4, Arlington, Va.: Association of the United States Army...
- [B]ased on information coming back to the community after the initial review at the regional level, a concern that there was someone or some entity at the regional office that—who had a purposeful intent of scuttlebutting the Summit sale.1998 September 2, Dennis Reynolds, “Statement of Dennis Reynolds, Grant County Judge, Grant County, Or”, in Removing Roadblocks to Responsible Forest Management: Hearing before the Committee on...
- To chat idly or gossip; also, to spread rumours.
- During the fighting for Manila, it was scuttle-butted among the troops that they must never put pin-up pictures on the walls of the Manila Hotel because Mrs. [Douglas] MacArthur owned fifty per cent of the property and Brigadier General Courtney Whitney, of MacArthur's staff, owned the other half.1946, John LaCerda, “Whitecaps on the Moat”, in The Conqueror Comes to Tea: Japan under MacArthur, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, →OCLC, pages 97–98
- Could that picture (of the water skiier taking a spill in the April issue) possibly be the latest development in the "one man helicopter" which is currently scuttlebutting around the aviation underground?1952 June, James A. Young, Jr., “Letters”, in Arthur L. Schoeni, editor, Naval Aviation News, Washington, D.C.: Chief of Naval Operations and Bureau of Aeronautics, →OCLC, page 32, column 1
Examples of scuttlebutt in a sentence
- During the midwatch a radioman striker (that is, a seaman trying to advance to radioman third class) was taking a drink of water from the third-deck scuttlebutt.1991, Paul Stillwell, “The Tranquil Twenties: August 1921 – May 1929”, in Battleship Arizona: An Illustrated History, Annapolis, Md.: Naval...
- We all grabbed towels that belonged to whoever lived there, and we wet them down in the scuttlebutt and wrapped them around our faces to filter out as much smoke as possible.2007, Joseph A[dam] Springer, Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II, St. Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press...
- "That's the scuttlebutt," Bronson said defiantly.1962 September, Richard McKenna, chapter 9, in The Sand Pebbles […], New York, N.Y.; Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, →OCLC, page 137:
- Since their orders had come through, the "scuttlebutt" among the excited and curious crew had been of little besides the fabled "White City," […]2006, Thomas Pynchon, “The Light over the Ranges”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 3:
Synonyms of scuttlebutt
- scuttle-cask
- furphy
- babble
- bavardage
- bibble-babble
- blab
- blabber
- blabbing
- blather
- blathering
29 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of scuttlebutt
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scuttlebutts |
| alternative form | scuttle-butt |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scuttlebutts |
| present participle | scuttlebutting |
| past participle | scuttlebutted |
| past | scuttlebutted |
Origin of scuttlebutt
The noun is derived from scuttle (“to cut a hole through (something)”) + butt (“wooden cask”). Noun sense 2 (“gossip, idle chatter; rumour”) refers to the fact that sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare furphy and water cooler. The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from scuttlebutt
Questions about scuttlebutt
- What does scuttlebutt mean?
- Scuttlebutt means originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship.
- How do you use scuttlebutt in a sentence?
- During the midwatch a radioman striker (that is, a seaman trying to advance to radioman third class) was taking a drink of water from the third-deck scuttlebutt.
- What part of speech is scuttlebutt?
- Scuttlebutt can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scuttlebutt?
- Scuttlebutt is pronounced /ˈskʌtəlbʌt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of scuttlebutt?
- The plural of scuttlebutt is scuttlebutts.
Words near scuttlebutt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scuttlebutt (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scuttlebutt.wav.
Cite this entry: “scuttlebutt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scuttlebutt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.