gutter

Meanings

Noun

• A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water.
• A ditch along the side of a road.
• A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough.
• A groove down the sides of a bowling lane.
• A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement.
• Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.
• A space between printed columns of text.
• One of a number of pieces of wood or metal, grooved in the centre, used to separate the pages of type in a form.
• An unprinted space between rows of stamps.
• A drainage channel.
• The notional locus of things, acts, or events which are distasteful, ill bred or morally questionable.
• A low, vulgar state.
• The spaces between comic book panels.
• One who or that which guts.

Verb

• To flow or stream; to form gutters.
• To melt away by having the molten wax run down along the side of the candle.
• To flicker as if about to be extinguished.
• To send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins.
• To supply with a gutter or gutters.
• To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.

Origin

• From Middle English gutter, guttur, goter, from Anglo-Norman guttere, from Old French goutiere (French gouttière), ultimately from Latin gutta.
• gut + -er