What is "ass"

Butt \Butt\, But \But\, n. [F. but butt, aim (cf. butte knoll), or bout, OF. bot, end, extremity, fr. boter, buter, to push, butt, strike, F. bouter; of German origin; cf. OHG. b[=o]zan, akin to E. beat. See Beat, v. t.]

1. A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.

   Here is my journey's end, here my butt And very sea mark of my utmost sail.
   --Shak.

   Note: As applied to land, the word is nearly synonymous with mete, and signifies properly the end line or boundary; the abuttal.

2. The larger or thicker end of anything; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp end; as, the butt of a rifle. Formerly also spelled but. See 2nd but, n. sense 2.

3. A mark to be shot at; a target.
   --Sir W. Scott.

   The groom his fellow groom at butts defies, And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.
   --Dryden.

4. A person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed; as, the butt of the company.

   I played a sentence or two at my butt, which I thought very smart.
   --Addison.

5. A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head of an animal; as, the butt of a ram.

6. A thrust in fencing.

   To prove who gave the fairer butt, John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.
   --Prior.

7. A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.

   The hay was growing upon headlands and butts in cornfields.
   --Burrill.

8. (Mech.)

   1. A joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together without scarfing or chamfering; -- also called butt joint.

   2. The end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the boxing is attached by the strap, cotter, and gib.

   3. The portion of a half-coupling fastened to the end of a hose.

9. (Shipbuilding) The joint where two planks in a strake meet.

10. (Carp.) A kind of hinge used in hanging doors, etc.; -- so named because fastened on the edge of the door, which butts against the casing, instead of on its face, like the strap hinge; also called butt hinge.

11. (Leather Trade) The thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.

12. The hut or shelter of the person who attends to the targets in rifle practice.

13. The buttocks; as, get up off your butt and get to work; -- used as a euphemism, less objectionable than ass.

    Syn: ass, rear end, derriere, behind, rump, heinie.

    Butt chain (Saddlery), a short chain attached to the end of a tug.

    Butt end. The thicker end of anything. See But end, under 2d But.

    Amen; and make me die a good old man! That's the butt end of a mother's blessing.
    --Shak.

    A butt's length, the ordinary distance from the place of shooting to the butt, or mark.

    Butts and bounds (Conveyancing), abuttals and boundaries. In lands of the ordinary rectangular shape, butts are the lines at the ends (F. bouts), and bounds are those on the sides, or sidings, as they were formerly termed.
    --Burrill.

    Bead and butt. See under Bead.

    Butt and butt, joining end to end without overlapping, as planks.

    Butt weld (Mech.), a butt joint, made by welding together the flat ends, or edges, of a piece of iron or steel, or of separate pieces, without having them overlap. See Weld.

    Full butt, headfirst with full force. [Colloq.] ``The corporal . . . ran full butt at the lieutenant.''
    --Marryat.

beast of burden, Old English assa (Old Northumbrian assal, assald) "he-ass," probably from Old Celtic *as(s)in "donkey," which (with German esel, Gothic asilus, Lithuanian asilas, Old Church Slavonic osl) ultimately is from Latin asinus, which is probably of Middle Eastern origin (compare Sumerian ansu).\n\nFor al schal deie and al schal passe, Als wel a Leoun as an asse.

[John Gower, "Confessio Amantis," 1393]

slang for "backside," first attested 1860 in nautical slang, in popular use from 1930; chiefly U.S.; from dialectal variant pronunciation of arse (q.v.). The loss of -r- before -s- attested in several other words (such as burst/bust, curse/cuss, horse/hoss, barse/bass). Indirect evidence of the change from arse to ass can be traced to 1785 (in euphemistic avoidance of ass "donkey" by polite speakers) and perhaps to Shakespeare, if Nick Bottom transformed into a donkey in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1594) is the word-play some think it is. Meaning "woman regarded as a sexual object" is from 1942. Colloquial (one's) ass "one's self, one's person" attested by 1958.

Etymology 1 n. 1 Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially (taxlink Equus africanus species noshow=1), often domesticated and used a beast of burden. 2 (context slang English) A stupid person. Etymology 2

n. 1 (context vulgar slang English) buttocks. 2 (context vulgar slang uncountable English) sex. 3 (context vulgar slang English) anus. 4 (context slang English) (non-gloss definition: Used in similes to express something bad or unpleasant.) 5 (context slang English) (non-gloss definition: Used after an adjective to indicate extremes or excessiveness.) 6 (context slang English) One's self or person, chiefly their body.

1. n. the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; "he deserves a good kick in the butt"; "are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?" [syn: buttocks, nates, arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can, fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, stern, seat, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom, behind, derriere, fanny]

2. a pompous fool

3. hardy and sure-footed animal smaller and with longer ears than the horse

4. slang terms for sexual intercourse [syn: fuck, fucking, screw, screwing, nooky, nookie, piece of ass, piece of tail, roll in the hay, shag, shtup]

The A.S.S. was a French automobile produced from 1919 to 1920 by Bernard Verdy. Advertised as "L'automobile pour tous", the car was powered by a 1240cc, two-stroke Thomas engine and used a 2-speed epicyclic transmission. The car featured electric lights and starter. The vehicle was launched as a 4-seat tourer (the catalog also mentioned a 2-seat coupe) in March 1919 at a cost of 4750 francs. Plans for mass production went unrealized, and in March 1920 it was announced that the company had merged with the Société des Moteurs Thomas.

Ass may refer to:

• Asinus, a subgenus of Equus that includes the donkey and other asses:
  • Donkey, Equus africanus asinus
  • Onager, Equus hemionus
  • Mongolian wild ass
• North American English informal term for buttocks
• áss, one of the Æsir in Norse mythology
• Ass (album), by Badfinger
• In abstract algebra, Ass(M) denotes the collection of all associated primes of a module M
• AsS, the basic chemical formula for arsenic sulfide

ASS may stand for:

• ASS (car), a French car made from 1919 to 1920
• ASS (gene), a human gene that encodes for the enzyme argininosuccinate synthetase

Ass is the fourth studio album by British rock band Badfinger, and their last album released on Apple Records. The opening track, " Apple of My Eye", refers to the band leaving the label to begin its new contract with Warner Bros. Records. The cover artwork, showing a donkey chasing a distant carrot, alludes to Badfinger's feelings that they had been misled by Apple over the years. The cover was painted by Grammy Award-winning artist Peter Corriston, who would later create album covers for Led Zeppelin ( Physical Graffiti) and the Rolling Stones ( Some Girls, Tattoo You).