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scuttlebutt.

Originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship.

11 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈskʌtəlbʌt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈskʌtəlˌbʌt/General-American[-ɾəl-]General-American
  1. Originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship.

    countable
  2. Gossip, idle chatter; also, rumour.

    slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from scuttle (“to cut a hole through (something)”) + butt (“wooden cask”). Noun sense 2 (“gossip, idle chatter; rumour”) refers to the fact that sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare furphy and water cooler. The verb is derived from the noun.

verb/ˈskʌtəlbʌt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈskʌtəlˌbʌt/General-American[-ɾəl-]General-American
  1. To spread (information) by way of gossip or rumour.

    rare · slang · transitive
  2. To chat idly or gossip; also, to spread rumours.

    intransitive · slang
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from scuttle (“to cut a hole through (something)”) + butt (“wooden cask”). Noun sense 2 (“gossip, idle chatter; rumour”) refers to the fact that sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare furphy and water cooler. The verb is derived from the noun.

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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.