Scuttle

Quick meaning: Scuttle is a noun meaning A container like an open bucket (usually to hold and carry coal).

Meaning

A container like an open bucket (usually to hold and carry coal).

More Meanings

1. A broad, shallow basket.
2. A small hatch or opening in a boat, sometimes one used for draining water from open deck.
3. (construction) A hatch that provides access to the roof from the interior of a building.
4. (transitive, nautical) To cut a hole or holes through the bottom, deck, or sides of (as of a ship), for any purpose.
5. (transitive) To deliberately sink one's ship or boat by any means, usually by order of the vessel's commander or owner.
6. (automotive) A drained trough between the windscreen and bonnet of a motor vehicle, forming the intake to the heating/air-conditioning system, often also containing the windscreen wiper motor.
7. (obsolete, Northern England and Scotland) A dish, platter or a trencher.

Example Sentences

The Vichy French fleet in Toulon in 1942 scuttled itself as a final "fuck you" to the invading Germans.

To lay the foundation for an all-weather dock at Shelter Bay, he filled an old barge with worn-out grindstones from the Thorold paper mill, then scuttled the vessel.

In this version, the Patriot was boarded by pirates (or the crew and passengers were overpowered by mutineers), who murdered everyone and then looted and scuttled the ship.

"My men, the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese pirate. His character is known; he scuttles all the ships he boards, dishonours the women, and murders the crew."

Word Forms

• scuttles
• scuttling
• scuttled

Synonyms for scuttle

Depending on context, synonyms include cowl, destroy, wreck, scamper, skitter, opening.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include hatchway, skitter, scamper, scurry, opening, derail.

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