strutting

Verb (1)

strut (third-person singular simple present struts, present participle strutting, simple past and past participle strutted)

1. (intransitive) Of a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with the tail erect and spread out.
   • Hark, hark, I heare, the ſtraine of ſtrutting Chanticlere cry cockadidle-dowe.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
2. (also, broadly, figuratively, intransitive) To walk haughtily or proudly with one's head held high.
   • He strutted about the yard, thinking himself master of all he surveyed.

   Synonyms:

   swagger, high-side, aura farm, boulevardier, cut a wide swath, cut it fat, cut round, exhibitionize, figure away, flamboast

3. (broadly, transitive) To walk across or on (a stage or other place) haughtily or proudly.
   • Taking you and your colleagues as the model of modern times, I should almost fear that the John Bull of former days was as different from the John Bull of the present time, as is a broad-shouldered, fearless Highlandman from the dapper cockney who struts the Park by the side of his fellow-milliner.1827, S[olomon] Atkinson, The Effects of the New System of Free Trade upon Our Shipping, Colonies & Commerce, Exposed in a Letter to the Right Hon. W[illiam] Huskisson, President of the Board of...
4. (intransitive, obsolete) Often followed by out: to protuberate or stick out due to being full or swollen; to bulge, to swell.
   • Sometimes [the clitoris] groweth to such a length that it hangeth without the cleft like a mans member, especially when it is fretted with the touch of the cloaths, and so strutteth and groweth to a rigiditie as doth the yarde [penis] of a man.1631, Helkiah Crooke, Μικροκοσμογραφια [Mikrokosmographia]. A Description of the Body of Man. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Thomas and Richard Cotes, and are to be sold by Michael Sparke, […], →OCLC...
5. (obsolete, transitive) Often followed by out: to cause (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell.
   • [H]e gains the glitt'ring prize, / And ſtruts the gaudy food of gazing eyes, / A thing—that oft his Footmen may deſpiſe.[1746?], One Thousand, Seven Hundred, and Forty-five. A Satiric Epistle after the Manner of Mr. [Alexander] Pope, London; Dublin: […] J. Kinneir, […], and A. Long, […], →OCLC, page 5

   Synonyms:

   distend

Verb (2)

strut (third-person singular simple present struts, present participle strutting, simple past and past participle strutted)

1. (also, figuratively, transitive) To brace or support (something) by a strut or struts; to hold (something) in place or strengthen by a diagonal, transverse, or upright support.
   • Masonry flying arches strutting the retaining walls in Chorley cutting, Manchester-Blackpool line, L.M.S.R.1939 November, “Pertinent Paragraphs”, in Railway Magazine, page 358, photo caption

See all 13 meanings of strut