Also 6 bowt, 9 dial. boot. [App. a specialized sense of BOUGHT sb.1 ‘bending’ (which in 16th c. was also spelt bout), perhaps influenced by association with BOUT adv.2 ‘about.’]
† 1. A circuit, an orbit; a roundabout way. Obs.
a. 1541. Wyatt, Poet. Wks. (1861), 152. The seuenth heauen … In nine and twenty yeres complete and daies almost sixtene Doth carry in his bowt, the star of Saturn old.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. (1641), 18/1. Which in thy wide bout, boundlesse all dost bound.
a. 1655. T. Adams, Wks., 1861–2, II. 14 (D.). I love not to fetch any bouts where there is a nearer way.
b. The going and returning of the plow along two adjacent furrows: also attrib.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVIII. xviii. They make not past two or three bouts in a land, and as many ridges.
1812. Strickland, Agric. E. Yorksh., 159. Ridging up the land into two-bout ridges.
1840. Jrnl. Eng. Agric. Soc., I. II. 261. Ridges … each consisting of 2 furrows up and 2 down, or 2 bouts, as they are called.
2. A ‘round’ at any kind of exercise, a turn or spell of work; as much of an action as is performed at one time.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Venerie, 135. If he doe it not at three boutes it is also a forfeyture.
1617. Hieron, Wks. (1620), II. 236. To set vpon some course of godlinesse for a bout or two.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. v. 328. They had … another bout in the same service.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Wheat, With a broad Cast, which some do with a single Cast, and some with a double Bout, that is, to sow it twice in a place.
1819. Wordsw., Waggoner, II. 96. When every dance is done, When every whirling bout is o’er.
1879. F. Pollok, Sport Brit. Burmah, II. 121. [We] had long contemplated a shooting bout together.
b. This, that bout: i.e., occasion, turn, time.
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., V. xv. 177. He … may well sustain the person of the Seventh for this bout.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Josephus’ Wars, VII. v. (1733), 766. The Romans did not find the enemy asleep this Bout.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 326, ¶ 5. The Upholsterer was called, and her Longing say’d that bout.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, 295. The Lancashire lads will not come to harm this bout.
3. A round at fighting; a contest, match, trial of strength, physical or intellectual.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. ii. 56. Damsell, Ile haue a bowt with you againe.
1609. Rowlands, Whole Crew, &c. 8. Sometimes at the fist we haue a bout.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xliv. 233. A bout at cudgels.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VII. viii. The two maids … began a second bout at altercation.
1826. Scott, Woodst. (1832), 186. If there was a bout at single-stick.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 634. At Corinth he had doubtless witnessed those wrestling bouts.
b. Used of a continued fit of drinking.
1670. Maynwaring, Vita Sana, vi. 78. Those drunken bouts being repeated … lay the foundation of many chronick diseases.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 164. Only fit to be concluded after a drunken bout.
1842. Park, Mar. Insur., II. 943. House … had been wont occasionally to indulge in fits or bouts of drinking.
c. A fit or turn of illness, as ‘a severe bout of influenza.’ dial.
† 4. A term used to express a certain quantity of lead ore. (See quot.) ? Obs.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., v. When they have done measuring they account the whole to be so many Bouts, as suppose 24 Bouts and one half, that’s sixty-four Loads; the short Bout is used where lesser quantities are raised, and the whole groove not divided into such small Parts.
