rut

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a long, deep track or groove made in soft ground or another surface by repeated passage

   Cart wheels had cut a deep rut into the muddy road.

2. 2
   noun

   a fixed, monotonous routine or pattern that is difficult to escape

   Taking a different route helped her break out of her daily rut.

3. 3
   noun

   the annual period of sexual activity and competition among certain mammals

   Male deer become more aggressive during the autumn rut.

4. 4
   verb

   to make grooves in a surface or, of certain mammals, to engage in the breeding season

   Heavy wagons rutted the wet lane before it could dry.

The origin of the road-groove sense is uncertain; it may be related to Middle English route, 'a way or road.' The animal-breeding sense comes separately through Old French rut, 'roaring or mating season,' from Latin rugitus, 'a roaring.' The figurative fixed-routine sense extends the image of wheels trapped in a worn track.

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