bout

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a period of illness

   a bout of fever

2. 2
   noun

   A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant, like an illness.

   a bout of drought

3. 3
   noun

   A boxing match.

   An Italian boxer abandoned her bout at the Paris Olympics after only 46 seconds on Thursday, refusing to continue after taking a heavy punch from an Algerian opponent who had been disqualified from last year’s world championships over questions about her eligibility to compete in women’s sports.

4. 4
   noun

   A fighting competition.

   Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.

5. 5
   noun

   The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.

   The outside bout of each land is ploughed two inches deeper, and from thence the water runs into cross furrows, which are dug with a spade […] I have an instrument of great power, called a scarifier, for this purpose. It is drawn by four horses, and completely prepares the land for the seed at each bout.

6. 6
   prep

   Apheretic form of about.

   They're talking bout you!

7. 7
   noun

   an occasion for excessive eating or drinking

8. 8
   noun

   a contest or fight (especially between boxers or wrestlers)

Etymology

From Middle English bout, bowt, bught (whence also modern English bought (“bend, curve”)), probably from Old English *buht (“bend, turn”), an unrecorded variant of Old English byht (“a bend, curve”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“a bend”). Equivalent to bow + -t. Doublet of bight and bought. For the sense development compare bender.