• enPR: bŭʹtər, IPA: /ˈbʌtəɹ/
• (RP) IPA: /ˈbʌtə/, [ˈbɐtʰə]
• (America) IPA: /ˈbʌtɚ/, [ˈbʌɾɚ]
• (New Zealand) IPA: /ˈbatə/, [ˈbaɾa]
• (Scotland, Wales) IPA: /ˈbʌtɚ/, [ˈbʌʔɚ]
• (Northern England, Midlands) IPA: /ˈbʊtə/

From Middle English buter, butter, from Old English butere, from Proto-West Germanic *buterā, from Latin būtȳrum, from Ancient Greek βούτῡρον, compound of βοῦς ("ox, cow") and τῡρός ("cheese").

butter (uncountable)

1. A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk).
2. Any of various foodstuffs made from other foods or oils, similar in consistency to, eaten like or intended as a substitute for butter (preceded by the name of the food used to make it).

   peanut butter

   soy butter

   chocolate butter

3. Any of various substances made from other (especially plant-based) oils or fats, used in moisturizers, cosmetics, etc.
4. (obsolete, chemistry) Any specific soft substance.

   Butter of antimony; butter of arsenic

5. (aviation, slang) A smooth plane landing.

   That landing was total butter!

• butterface
• butterfly
• butter-ham

• French: beurre
• German: Butter, Anke (Switzerland)
• Italian: burro, butirro (obsolete)
• Portuguese: manteiga
• Russian: ма́сло
• Spanish: mantequilla, manteca (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay)

• French: beurre
• Russian: ма́сло

butter (butters, present participle buttering; simple past and past participle buttered)

1. (transitive) To spread butter on.

   Butter the toast.

2. (skiing, snowboarding) To move one's weight backwards or forwards onto the tips or tails of one's skis or snowboard so only the tip or tail is in contact with the snow. Similar to applying butter to bread with then end of a butterknife.
   1. To spin on skis or a snowboard using only the tips or tails being in contact with the snow

   Hyponyms: nosebutter, tailbutter

3. (slang, obsolete, transitive) To increase (stakes) at every throw of dice, or every game.

• French: beurrer
• German: mit Butter bestreichen
• Italian: imburrare
• Portuguese: amanteigar, passar manteiga em
• Russian: нама́слить
• Spanish: untar con mantequilla

From .

butter (plural butters)

1. Someone or something that butts.
   • 2005, David E. Fastovsky, David B. Weishampel, The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs, page 156:

     […] these animals lacked self-correcting mechanisms of the kind seen in modern head-butters such as goats and big-horn sheep that would have kept the tremendous forces aligned with the rest of the skeleton.

2. Someone or something that butts in; a busybody.

Various origins:

• From butter, a metonymic occupational surname for a dairyman or seller of butter.
• From Old French butor, a nickname for someone who resembled a bittern, perhaps because of his voice.
• Borrowed from Dutch - and German Butter, possibly a short form of various compound names.

1. Surname.