GUTTER

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gutter mean? 

• GUTTER (noun)
  The noun GUTTER has 4 senses:

1. a channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater

2. misfortune resulting in lost effort or money

3. a worker who guts things (fish or buildings or cars etc.)

4. a tool for gutting fish

  Familiarity information: GUTTER used as a noun is uncommon.

• GUTTER (verb)
  The verb GUTTER has 4 senses:

1. burn unsteadily, feebly, or low; flicker

2. flow in small streams

3. wear or cut gutters into

4. provide with gutters

  Familiarity information: GUTTER used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GUTTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

gutter; trough

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

channel (a passage for water (or other fluids) to flow through)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gutter"):

chute; slide; slideway; sloping trough (sloping channel through which things can descend)

cullis (a gutter in a roof)

Holonyms ("gutter" is a part of...):

gable roof; saddle roof; saddleback; saddleback roof (a double sloping roof with a ridge and gables at each end)

Derivation:

gutter (provide with gutters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Misfortune resulting in lost effort or money

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

gutter; sewer; toilet

Context example:

pensions are in the toilet

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A worker who guts things (fish or buildings or cars etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

worker (a person who works at a specific occupation)

Derivation:

gut (remove the guts of)

gut (empty completely; destroy the inside of)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A tool for gutting fish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("gutter" is a kind of...):

hand tool (a tool used with workers' hands)

Derivation:

gut (remove the guts of)

• GUTTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they gutter    ... he / she / it gutters   
Past simple: guttered   
Past participle: guttered   
-ing form: guttering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Burn unsteadily, feebly, or low; flicker

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Context example:

The cooling lava continued to gutter toward lower ground

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

burn; glow (shine intensely, as if with heat)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Flow in small streams

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

Tears guttered down her face

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

course; feed; flow; run (move along, of liquids)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Wear or cut gutters into

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The heavy rain guttered the soil

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

dig into; poke into; probe (examine physically with or as if with a probe)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Provide with gutters

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

gutter the buildings

Hypernyms (to "gutter" is one way to...):

cater; ply; provide; supply (give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

gutter (a channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater)

 Context examples 

Even in little Friar’s Oak we had our flags flying bravely, and a candle in every window, with a big G.R. guttering in the wind over the door of the inn.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Because the candle was not guttered.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘Done!’ said he. ‘We picked him out of the gutter, and he won’t leave us so easily.’ Those were his very words.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The chair went to matchwood at the bottom, and we rolled apart into the gutter.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the table were the four guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards scattered over its surface.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"He's got it in him, I tell you, from his father," Mr. Higginbotham went on accusingly. "An' he'll croak in the gutter the same way. You know that."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with burning tallow—walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in one hand and a guttering candle in the other.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was bitter cold in the morning, she dropped her precious turnover in the gutter, Aunt March had an attack of the fidgets, Meg was sensitive, Beth would look grieved and wistful when she got home, and Amy kept making remarks about people who were always talking about being good and yet wouldn't even try when other people set them a virtuous example.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The stick with which the deed had been done, although it was of some rare and very tough and heavy wood, had broken in the middle under the stress of this insensate cruelty; and one splintered half had rolled in the neighbouring gutter—the other, without doubt, had been carried away by the murderer.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I walked from the Custom House to the Monument before I found a coach; and although the very house-fronts, looking on the swollen gutters, were like old friends to me, I could not but admit that they were very dingy friends.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)