bout

Meanings

Noun

• A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant.
• A boxing match.
• An assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
• A roller derby match.
• A fighting competition.
• A bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
• The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.

Verb

• To contest a bout.

Origin

• From Middle English bught, probably from an unrecorded variant of Old English byht ("a bend"), from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz. See bight, bought.
• Written form of a reduction of about.