bout

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A short period of an illness or of something unpleasant.

   She is recovering from a nasty bout of flu.

2. 2
   noun

   A boxing or wrestling match.

   The two fighters met for their final bout on Saturday night.

3. 3
   noun

   A short period of intense activity.

   He went through a bout of frantic spending after his promotion.

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.

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