Meaning

(nautical) The middle part, cavity, or belly of a sail; the part of a furled sail which is at the center of the yard..

Definitions by Sense

1. (nautical) The middle part, cavity, or belly of a sail; the part of a furled sail which is at the center of the yard.
2. A push or shove; a butt.
3. (baseball, softball) A ball that has been intentionally hit softly so as to be difficult to field, sometimes with a hands-spread batting stance or with a close-hand, choked-up hand position. No swinging action is involved.
4. (baseball, softball) The act of bunting.
5. (aviation) The second half of an outside loop, from level flight to inverted flight.
6. (countable, uncountable) A fungus (Ustilago foetida) affecting the ear of cereals, filling the grains with a foetid dust.
7. To push with the horns; to butt.
8. To spring or rear up.

Example Sentences

The bunt of the sail was green.

The bunt was fielded cleanly.

The manager will likely call for a bunt here.

Jones bunted the ball.

Jones bunted.

We had heard that there was an elite group of three or four pilots in Jodhpur called the “Bunt Club”, who had successfully bunted their aircraft—that is, carried out the second half of an outside loop. In the Bunt, you pushed the nose down, past the vertical and still further, until you were in horizontal inverted flight, and came out on the other side and rolled it out.

The sail bunts.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:bunt.

Word Forms

• bunts
• bunting
• bunted

Synonyms for bunt

Related Words

When Should You Use Bunt?

Use bunt when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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