Library / English Dictionary

GUTTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater

Synonyms:

gutter; trough

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

channel (a passage for water (or other fluids) to flow through)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gutter"):

chute; slide; slideway; sloping trough (sloping channel through which things can descend)

cullis (a gutter in a roof)

Holonyms ("gutter" is a part of...):

gable roof; saddle roof; saddleback; saddleback roof (a double sloping roof with a ridge and gables at each end)

Derivation:

gutter (provide with gutters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A tool for gutting fish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

hand tool (a tool used with workers' hands)

Derivation:

gut (remove the guts of)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A worker who guts things (fish or buildings or cars etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

worker (a person who works at a specific occupation)

Derivation:

gut (remove the guts of)

gut (empty completely; destroy the inside of)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Misfortune resulting in lost effort or money

Example:

pensions are in the toilet

Synonyms:

gutter; sewer; toilet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Provide with gutters

Example:

gutter the buildings

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

cater; ply; provide; supply (give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

gutter (a channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Wear or cut gutters into

Example:

The heavy rain guttered the soil

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

dig into; poke into; probe (examine physically with or as if with a probe)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Flow in small streams

Example:

Tears guttered down her face

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

course; feed; flow; run (move along, of liquids)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Burn unsteadily, feebly, or low; flicker

Example:

The cooling lava continued to gutter toward lower ground

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

burn; glow (shine intensely, as if with heat)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

In these diversions he was interrupted by a noise at the closet door, as if somebody were opening it: whereupon he suddenly leaped up to the window at which he had come in, and thence upon the leads and gutters, walking upon three legs, and holding me in the fourth, till he clambered up to a roof that was next to ours.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This evil had been felt and lamented, at least three times a day, by Isabella since her residence in Bath; and she was now fated to feel and lament it once more, for at the very moment of coming opposite to Union Passage, and within view of the two gentlemen who were proceeding through the crowds, and threading the gutters of that interesting alley, they were prevented crossing by the approach of a gig, driven along on bad pavement by a most knowing-looking coachman with all the vehemence that could most fitly endanger the lives of himself, his companion, and his horse.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

In one hand he held a guttering candle and in the other a brown bag, which chinked as he moved.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)