gutter

[ guht-er ]

noun

1. a channel at the side or in the middle of a road or street, for leading off surface water.
2. a channel at the eaves or on the roof of a building, for carrying off rainwater.
3. any channel, trough, or the like for carrying off fluid.
4. a furrow or channel made by running water.
5. Bowling. a sunken channel extending along each side of a bowling lane, to catch balls that stray over the edge.
6. the state or abode of those who live in degradation, squalor, etc.:

   the language of the gutter.

7. the white space formed by the inner margins of two facing pages in a bound book, magazine, or newspaper.

verb (used without object)

1. to flow in streams.
2. (of a candle) to lose molten wax accumulated in a hollow space around the wick.
3. (of a lamp or candle flame) to burn low or to be blown so as to be nearly extinguished.
4. to form gutters, as water does.

verb (used with object)

1. to make gutters in; channel.
2. to furnish with a gutter or gutters:

   to gutter a new house.

gutter

/ ˈɡʌtə /

noun

1. a channel along the eaves or on the roof of a building, used to collect and carry away rainwater
2. a channel running along the kerb or the centre of a road to collect and carry away rainwater
3. a trench running beside a canal lined with clay puddle
4. either of the two channels running parallel to a tenpin bowling lane
5. printing
   1. the space between two pages in a forme
   2. the white space between the facing pages of an open book
   3. the space between two columns of type
6. the space left between stamps on a sheet in order to separate them
7. surfing a dangerous deep channel formed by currents and waves
8. (in gold-mining) the channel of a former watercourse that is now a vein of gold
9. the gutter
   the gutter a poverty-stricken, degraded, or criminal environment

verb

1. tr to make gutters in
2. intr to flow in a stream or rivulet
3. intr (of a candle) to melt away by the wax forming channels and running down in drops
4. intr (of a flame) to flicker and be about to go out

Derived Forms

• ˈgutter-ˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• gutter·like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of gutter¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English gutter, goter, from Old French go(u)tiere, equivalent to goutte “drop” + -iere, feminine of -ier; gout, -er ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of gutter¹

C13: from Anglo-French goutiere, from Old French goute a drop, from Latin gutta

Idioms and Phrases

see in the gutter .

Example Sentences

Yes, you might have to recharge your blower—but odds are your gutters aren’t going to need hours of power to get things clean.

From Popular-Science

For example, single family homes would pay a flat fee, no matter how well built they were to send the water into the ground instead of out into the gutter.

From Voice of San Diego

The other day, I watched as one of the parents perched on one of our gutters, a worm hanging from its beak.

From Washington Post

Replacing your gutters may cost you a little more than planting flowers and painting your door, however, it will go a long way in your home’s curb appeal.

From Washington Blade

Vinyl gutter systems are less expensive but are infamous for cracking over time in our cold weather.

From Washington Blade

He piles the trash into the can and stands in the gutter, waiting for the light to change.

From The Daily Beast

Speaking with The Tottenville Review, Foy calls his school of writing “gutter opera.”

From The Daily Beast

But all publications seem to go to the gutter when it comes to Lewinsky.

From The Daily Beast

But I reserve the distinction for gutter dwelling and otherwise abhorrent behavior to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

From The Daily Beast

Davis begins the film, punched by an aggressor into the gutter and ends it the same way.

From The Daily Beast

A drunken man would reel from one side to the other until he fell down a cellar trap-door, into the gutter, or into the sea.

From Project Gutenberg

And to think that those documents are perhaps lying in the gutter at this very moment!

From Project Gutenberg

He was in a dreadful condition—a soiled and hopeless mass from the gutter out of which he had been rescued.

From Project Gutenberg

At the doors people sit drinking round tables placed on the pavement or in the rank, poisonous gutter.

From Project Gutenberg

He had been drunk over in town, and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• culvert
• dike
• duct
• eaves
• pipe
• sewer
• tube