What is "gutter"

Gutter \Gut"ter\, n. [OE. gotere, OF. goutiere, F. goutti[`e]re, fr. OF. gote, goute, drop, F. goutte, fr. L. gutta.]

1. A channel at the eaves of a roof for conveying away the rain; an eaves channel; an eaves trough.

2. A small channel at the roadside or elsewhere, to lead off surface water.

   Gutters running with ale.
   --Macaulay.

3. Any narrow channel or groove; as, a gutter formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.

4. (Bowling) Either of two sunken channels at either side of the bowling alley, leading directly to the sunken pit behind the pins. Balls not thrown accurately at the pins will drop into such a channel bypassing the pins, and resulting in a score of zero for that bowl.

   Gutter member (Arch.), an architectural member made by treating the outside face of the gutter in a decorative fashion, or by crowning it with ornaments, regularly spaced, like a diminutive battlement.

   Gutter plane, a carpenter's plane with a rounded bottom for planing out gutters.

   Gutter snipe, a neglected boy running at large; a street Arab. [Slang]

   Gutter stick (Printing), one of the pieces of furniture which separate pages in a form.

Gutter \Gut*ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Guttered; p. pr. & vb. n. Guttering.]

1. To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.
   --Shak.

2. To supply with a gutter or gutters. [R.]
   --Dryden.

Gutter \Gut"ter\, v. i. To become channeled, as a candle when the flame flares in the wind.

late 13c., "watercourse, water drainage channel along the side of a street," from Anglo-French gotere, Old French guitere, goutiere (13c., Modern French gouttière) "gutter, spout" (of water), from goute "a drop," from Latin gutta "a drop." Meaning "furrow made by running water" is from 1580s. Meaning "trough under the eaves of a roof to carry off rainwater" is from mid-14c. Figurative sense of "low, profane" is from 1818. In printers' slang, from 1841.

late 14c., "to make or run in channels," from gutter (n.). In reference to candles (1706) it is from the channel that forms on the side as the molten wax flows off. Related: Guttered; guttering.

Etymology 1 n. 1 A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water. 2 A ditch along the side of a road. 3 A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough. 4 (cx bowling English) A groove down the sides of a bowling lane. 5 A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement. 6 Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing. 7 A space between printed columns of text. 8 (context philately English) An unprinted space between rows of stamps. 9 (context British English) A drainage channel. 10 The notional locus of things, acts, or events which are distasteful, ill bred or morally questionable. 11 (context figuratively English) A low, vulgar state. vb. 1 To flow or stream; to form gutters. (from late 14th c.) 2 (context of a candle English) To melt away by having the molten wax run down along the side of the candle. (from early 18th c.) 3 (context of a small flame English) To flicker as if about to be extinguished. 4 (context transitive English) To send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins. 5 (context transitive English) To supply with a gutter or gutters. 6 (context transitive English) To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel. Etymology 2

n. One who or that which guts.

1. v. burn unsteadily, feebly, or low; flicker; "The cooling lava continued to gutter toward lower ground"

2. flow in small streams; "Tears guttered down her face"

3. wear or cut gutters into; "The heavy rain guttered the soil"

4. provide with gutters; "gutter the buildings"

1. n. a channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater [syn: trough]

2. misfortune resulting in lost effort or money; "his career was in the gutter"; "all that work went down the sewer"; "pensions are in the toilet" [syn: sewer, toilet]

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

4. a tool for gutting fish

Gutter may refer to:

• Rain gutter, a narrow trough or duct which collects rainwater from the roof of a building and diverts it away from the structure, typically into a drain
• Street gutter, a depression which runs alongside a city street, usually at the curb and diverts rain and street-cleaning water away from the street and into a storm drain

Gutter is a song by Danish singer Medina from her international debut studio album Welcome to Medina. It was released as the fourth single from the album on March 4, 2011. The electropop song was written by Medina, Providers and Viktoria Siff Emilie Hansen and it was produced by Providers. "Gutter" peaked at number eight in Denmark.

The philatelic use of the word gutter is the space left between postage stamps which allows them to be separated or perforated. When stamps are printed on large sheets of paper that will be guillotined into smaller sheets along the gutter it will not exist on the finished sheet of stamps. Some sheets are specifically designed where two panes of stamps are separated by a gutter still in the finished sheet and gutters may, or may not, have some printing in the gutter. Since perforation of a particular width of stamps is normal, the gutter between the stamps is often the same size as the postage stamp.

Several derivative terms exist:

Gutter pairs are two stamps separated by a gutter.

Gutter block is a block of at least four stamps where either the vertical or horizontal pairs, or both, are separated by a gutter.

Gutter margin is a margin dividing a sheet of stamps into separate panes.