Forms: 3, 6 buttoke, 4–5 buttok, 5–7 buttocke, 7 buttoc, 5– buttock. [app. f. BUTT sb.3 + -OCK.]
1. One of the two protuberances of the rump (of men and beasts). Usually in pl. the rump, posteriors.
a. 1300. Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright), 320. The heles atte buttokes, the kneon in aither eye.
c. 1305. in E. E. P. (1862), 75. A strong rop … fram þe schuldre ido To his buttok.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeves T., 55. Buttokkes brode, and brestes round and hye.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, x. 259. He righted hymself vpon his buttocke.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 76. The .ix. propertyes of an hare … the .viii. to haue shorte buttockes.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. ii. 17. A Barbers chaire that fits all buttockes.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., xxii. 240. To whip their Buttocks and Loins with Rods.
1704. Addison, Italy (1733), 54. Set … with his bare Buttocks on this Stone.
1846. D. Jerrold, Chron. Clovernook, Wks. 1864, IV. 393. Their tails have been bitten short to the buttock.
† b. pl. used as a sing.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faustus, 850. My horse … has a buttocks as slick as an eel.
2. As a joint of meat.
1623. Althorp MS., xlvi. A buttocke, 2 necks, and a rond of beef.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1831), I. 482. The outside cut of a salt buttock of beef.
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, iv. As prime a buttock of beef as e’er hungry mon stuck fork in.
† 3. Buttocks of the brain: transl. of Galen’s γλούτια, ‘certain medullary tubercles near the pineal gland’ (Liddell and Scott). Obs. rare.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 431. The fourth Ventricle where the Glandule or Kernell called κονάριον is seated, at each side of which do adioyne the Buttockes of the Braine.
4. Naut. ‘The breadth of the ship astern from the tuck upwards.’ That part abaft the after body, which is bounded by the fashion pieces, and by the wing transom, and the upper or second water-line’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.). (Cf. Fr. les fesses d’un navire.)
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 4. According there to her breadth or narrownesse, we say she hath a narrow or broad buttocke.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Buttock, the convexity of a ship behind, under the stern.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 102.
5. slang. A common strumpet. (Fielding’s sense is obscure.) Obs.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 105. The Bawds and the Buttocks that lived there round.
1688. Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, I. Wks. 1720, IV. 17. What ogling there will be between thee and the Blowings!… every Buttock shall fall down before thee.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Buttock and File, both whore and pickpocket.
1743. Fielding, J. Wild, I. v. 33 (D.). That same Capacity which qualifies a Mill-hen, a Bridle-cull, or a Buttock and File, to arrive at any Degree of Eminence in his Profession.
6. [f. BUTTOCK v.] A certain manœuvre in wrestling (see the verb); varieties mentioned are the cross-buttock, running-buttock, etc.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. v. § 64. Running Buttock, is when … he turns his Buttock on his adversary, and lifts him up on his side.
1714. Parkyns, Inn-Play (ed. 2), 47. Then you are ready for the In-lock backwards or forwards, Buttock, or to return to the Trip with a draught. Ibid., 50. At the same time take the cross Buttock from the Under Hold.
1826. Scott, Woodstock, II. vii. 178. One of their … saints had given the devil … a cross-buttock.
1881. Sportsm. Year Bk., 314. Frears gaining two falls in succession, the first with a back heel and the second with a splendid buttock.
7. Comb., as buttock-beef, -bone, -hump; † buttock-ball, ? a ball attended by prostitutes; † buttock-banqueting, harlotry; buttock-lines, ‘in ship-building, the longitudinal curves at the rounding part of the after body in a vertical section’ (Smyth Sailor’s Word-bk.); † buttock-mail (Sc.), ludicrous term for a fine imposed for fornication.
1687. T. Brown, Lib. Consc., in Dk. Buckingham’s Wks. (1705), II. 131. Why not into a Bibbing-House, as well as a Dancing School, a *Buttoc Ball, or the like?
1555. Fardle Facions, II. viii. 167. Whiche [wiues] maie neuerthelesse vse *buttoke banquetyng abrode.
a. 1652. Brome, Queene’s Exch., II. iii. I would I had but this Fellows weight in *buttock Beef.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 48. The *buttocke bones and the flesh wherewith they are covered … are unto him in stead of a stoole and a cushion.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 1355/b. The *buttock-hump … is not … so characteristic of this race as has been imagined.
1833. T. Richardson, Merc. Mar. Archit., 34. Perpendicular sections, called also *buttock lines.
1535. Lyndesay, Sat., 3353. I gat gude payment of my Temporall lands, My *buttock-maill, my coattis, & my offrands.
1814. Scott, Wav., II. vii. 122. ‘D’ye think the lads wi’ the kilts will care for yere synods and yere presbyteries, and yere buttock-mail, and yere stool o’ repentance?’
