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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

punt.

A narrow shallow boat, square at both ends, traditionally propelled by a pole.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pʌnt//pʊnt/Northern-England
  1. A narrow shallow boat, square at both ends, traditionally propelled by a pole.

Where this word comes from

From Old English punt, from Latin pontō (“Gaulish flat-bottomed boat, pontoon”), from pons (“bridge”); readopted from Middle Low German punte (“ferry boat”) or Middle Dutch ponte (“ferry boat”) of the same origin.

verb/pʌnt//pʊnt/Northern-England
  1. To propel a punt or similar craft by means of a pole.

  2. Of a fish, to walk along the seafloor using its fins as limbs.

Where this word comes from

From Old English punt, from Latin pontō (“Gaulish flat-bottomed boat, pontoon”), from pons (“bridge”); readopted from Middle Low German punte (“ferry boat”) or Middle Dutch ponte (“ferry boat”) of the same origin.

verb/pʌnt/
  1. To dropkick; to kick something a considerable distance.

  2. To dropkick; to kick something a considerable distance. To kick a ball dropped from the hands before it hits the ground. (This puts the ball farther from the goal across which the opposing team is attempting to score, so improves the chances of the team punting.)

    intransitive · transitive
  3. To dropkick; to kick something a considerable distance. To kick a bouncing ball far and high.

  4. To equivocate and delay or put off (answering a question, addressing an issue, etc).

    colloquial · intransitive · transitive
  5. To retreat from one's objective; to abandon an effort one still notionally supports.

  6. To make the best choice from a set of non-ideal alternatives.

    colloquial · intransitive
  7. To eject; to kick out of a place.

    colloquial · transitive
Where this word comes from

Possibly a dialectal variant of bunt. Rugby is the origin of the sports usage of the term.

noun/pʌnt/
  1. A kick made by a player who drops the ball and kicks it before it hits the ground.

Where this word comes from

Possibly a dialectal variant of bunt. Rugby is the origin of the sports usage of the term.

noun/pʌnt/
  1. A point in the game of faro.

    obsolete
  2. The act of playing basset, baccarat, faro, etc.

    obsolete
  3. A bet or wager.

    Anyone up for a punt on Randwick?
  4. Gambling, as a pastime, especially betting on horseraces or the dogs.

    Australia
  5. A highly speculative investment or other commitment.

  6. A wild guess.

  7. The indentation in the base of a wine bottle.

  8. A thin glass rod which is temporarily attached to a larger piece in order to better manipulate the larger piece.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French pointe or Spanish punto (“point”). Doublet of point, pointe, ponto, puncto, punctum, and punto.

verb/pʌnt/
  1. To play basset, baccara, faro, etc.

  2. To stake against the bank, to back a horse, to gamble or take a chance more generally

    Australia · Ireland · New-Zealand · UK
  3. To make a highly speculative investment or other commitment, or take a wild guess.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French pointe or Spanish punto (“point”). Doublet of point, pointe, ponto, puncto, punctum, and punto.

noun/pʊnt/
  1. The Irish pound, used as the unit of currency of Ireland until it was replaced by the euro in 2002.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Irish punt, from Middle English pund. Doublet of funt, pfund, pood, and pound.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.