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Putter vs Utter - What's the difference?

putter | utter |

As verbs the difference between putter and utter

is that putter is to be active, but not excessively busy, at a task or a series of tasks while utter is to say.

As a noun putter

is one who puts or places.

As an adjective utter is

outer; furthest out, most remote.

As an adverb utter is

further out; further away, outside.

putter

English

Etymology 1

Alteration of

Verb

(en verb)
  • (label) To be active, but not excessively busy, at a task or a series of tasks.
  • *, chapter=13
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and commenced to putter with the lock.}}

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • who puts or places.
  • One who pushes the small wagons in a coal mine.
  • Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (golf) A golf club specifically intended for a putt.
  • (golf) A person who is taking a putt or putting.
  • See also

    * shot-putter English heteronyms ----

    utter

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ; compare (outer).

    Adjective

    (-)
  • * Chapman
  • By him a shirt and utter mantle laid.
  • * Spenser
  • As doth an hidden moth / The inner garment fret, not th' utter touch.
  • * Milton
  • Through utter and through middle darkness borne.
  • (obsolete) Outward.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Matthew XXIII:
  • Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.10:
  • So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came .
  • Absolute, unconditional, total, complete.
  • utter''' ruin; '''utter darkness
  • * Atterbury
  • They are utter strangers to all those anxious thoughts which disquiet mankind.
  • :* {{quote-book
  • , year=1920 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=Thuvia, Maiden of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=His eyes could not penetrate the darkness even to the distinguishing of his hand before his face, while the banths, he knew, could see quite well, though absence of light were utter . }}
    Synonyms
    * see also
    Derived terms
    * utterly * utterness * uttermost

    Etymology 2

    Partly from (out) (adverb/verb), partly from (etyl) uteren.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To say
  • Don't you utter another word!
  • To use the voice
  • Sally uttered a sigh of relief.
    The dog uttered a growling bark.
  • To make speech sounds which may or may not have an actual language involved
  • Sally is uttering some fairly strange things in her illness.
  • *
  • To make (a noise)
  • Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.
  • (legal) To put counterfeit money, etc. , into circulation
  • Derived terms
    * utterance * utterer * utterless * utterable

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (label) Further out; further away, outside.
  • *, Bk.VII, Ch.v:
  • *:So whan he com nyghe to hir, she bade hym ryde uttir —‘for thou smellyst all of the kychyn.’
  • ----