From Middle English putten, puten, poten, from Old English putian, *pūtian "to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung ("pushing, impulse, instigation, urging") and potian ("to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad"), both from Proto-Germanic *putōną, which is of uncertain origin.

• enPR: po͝ot, IPA: /pʊt/, [pʰʊʔt]
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /pʉt/

put (puts, present participle putting; simple past and past participle put)

1. To place something somewhere.

   She put her books on the table.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:

     Philander went into the next room […] and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:

     ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’

2. To bring or set into a certain relation, state or condition.
   • 1670, John Milton, “The [First] Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call'd England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC ↗, page 11 ↗:

     Theſe Verſes Originally Greek, were put in Latin,

   Put your house in order!

   He is putting all his energy into this one task.

   She tends to put herself in dangerous situations.

3. (finance) To exercise a put option.

   He got out of his Procter and Gamble bet by putting his shares at 80.

4. To express something in a certain manner.

   When you put it that way, I guess I can see your point.

   • 1846, Julius Hare, The Mission of the Comforter:

     All this is ingeniously and ably put.

5. (athletics) To throw a heavy iron ball, as a sport. (See shot put. Do not confuse with putt.)
6. To steer; to direct one's course; to go.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

     His fury thus appeased, he puts to land.

7. To play a card or a hand in the game called put.
8. To attach or attribute; to assign.

   to put a wrong construction on an act or expression

9. (obsolete) To lay down; to give up; to surrender.
   • c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume IV, Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC ↗, John 15:13, page 280 ↗:

     No man hath more love than this, that a man put his life for his friends.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

10. To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention.

    to put a question; to put a case

    • 1708-1710, George Berkeley, Philosophical Commentaries or Common-Place Book

      Put the perceptions and you put the mind.

    • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC ↗:

      Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it was that they did not want Jones back. When it was put to them in this light, they had no more to say.

11. (obsolete) To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige.
    • 1722, Jonathan Swift, The Last Speech of Ebenezer Elliston:

      These wretches put us upon all mischief.

    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗, line 386:

      Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge

    • 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC ↗:

      Put me not to use the carnal weapon in my own defence.

12. (mining) To convey coal in the mine, as for example from the working to the tramway.

• French: placer, mettre, poser
• German: setzen, stellen, legen, tun
• Italian: mettere, porre
• Portuguese: pôr, colocar, botar
• Russian: класть
• Spanish: poner, colocar, situar

• German: bringen
• Portuguese: deixar

• French: mettre
• Italian: porre, mettere
• Portuguese: pôr

• German: kugelstoßen

put

1. (business) A right to sell something at a predetermined price.
2. (finance) Short for put option.

   He bought a January '08 put for Procter and Gamble at 80 to hedge his bet.

   • c. 1900, Universal Cyclopaedia Entry for Stock-Exchange

     A put and a call may be combined in one instrument, the holder of which may either buy or sell as he chooses at the fixed price.

3. The act of putting; an action; a movement; a thrust; a push.

   the put of a ball

   • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC ↗:

     The Stag's was a Forc'd put, and a Chance rather than a Choice.

4. (uncountable) An old card game.

• German: Put

• IPA: /pʌt/

put (plural puts)

1. (obsolete) A fellow, especially an eccentric or elderly one; a duffer.
   • 1733, James Bramston, The Man of Taste:

     Queer Country-puts extol Queen Bess's reign,
     And of lost hospitality complain.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 244:

     The old put wanted to make a parson of me, but d—n me, thinks I to myself, I'll nick you there, old cull; the devil a smack of your nonsense shall you ever get into me.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 11, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC ↗:

     The Captain has a hearty contempt for his father, I can see, and calls him an old put, an old snob, an old chaw-bacon, and numberless other pretty names.

   • 1870, Frederic Harrison, “The Romance of the Peerage: Lothair,”, in Fortnightly Review:

     Any number of varlet to be had for a few ducats and what droll puts the citizens seem in it all!

From Old French pute.

put (plural puts)

1. (obsolete) A prostitute.
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC ↗:

     And Mrs. Penny-a-hoist Pim, said Mr. Gorman. That old put, said Mr. Nolan.

put

1. (software, testing) Acronym of parameterized unit test
2. (software, testing) Acronym of parameterized unit testing
3. (electronics) Initialism of programmable unijunction transistor

• (programmable unijunction transistor) programmable UJT

• (programmable unijunction transistor) transistor, unijunction transistor (UJT), BJT, FET, JFET, MOSFET, QFET