buttery

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌtəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

From Middle English buttry, equivalent to butter +‎ -y. Piecewise doublet of butyric, butter ultimately being from Latin būtȳrum and -y being a doublet of -ic.

buttery (comparative butterier, superlative butteriest)

1. Made with or tasting of butter.

   The buttery-tasting cookie was actually made with margarine, but you couldn't tell by tasting it.

2. Resembling butter in some way, such as yellow color or smooth texture.

   The old paper was a buttery color you no longer get.

   • 2015 September 5, Mark Diacono, “In praise of the Asian pear”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎, archived from the original on 12 September 2015, pages 1–2:

     While the European pear is, at its finest, buttery and surrenders to the slightest pressure, Asian pears are firm, very crisp, hugely juicy and sweet and, in some cases, highly aromatic – spicy almost.

   • 2019, Gina Zdanowicz, Spencer Bambrick, The Game Audio Strategy Guide: A Practical Course:

     Most libraries have smooth, buttery legatos and exciting, natural-sounding spiccatos.

3. (informal) Marked by insincere flattery; obsequious.
   • 1997, Russell Wild, Games Bosses Play, page 100:

     He'll be nothing but enraptured with your buttery words .

   • 2000, Scott von Doviak, Stephen King Films FAQ:

     Dawson, for one, is on the right wavelength, goosing his buttery game-show host persona into a caricature of unctuous evil.

4. (computing, video games) Short for buttery smooth.
   • 2014 October 30, Greg Kumparak, “YouTube Can Now Play Videos At A Buttery 60 Frames Per Second”, in Tech Crunch:

     (see title)

   • 2015 April 28, Jason Hidalgo, “Shout at the devil: DmC Devil May Cry Definitive Edition review”, in Reno Gazette Journal:

     These include improved textures and character models plus a new buttery frame rate as the game gets boosted to 1080p resolution and animation of 60 frames per second. Stylish.

   • 2015 November 19, Hayden Dingman, “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate PC review impressions: This gorgeous, mostly smooth game is no Unity”, in PC World:

     I dipped a few of the Nvidia-specific settings since I prefer smooth, buttery frame rate, but that’s impressive in itself given it’s the only game this year to make that happen.

   • 2018, Darrin Thompson, Set The Tone:

     For video, setting a higher frame rate, like 60 frames per second, means having the ability for getting nicer, buttery, silky-smooth, slow motion—if you're into that sort of thing.

   • 2018, Dachima Inaka, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?:

     That frame rate is buttery. Your computer has an excellent graphics card, Masato

   • 2021 December 12, Mark Knapp, Matt Elliot, “Best 1080p Gaming Monitors 2021”, in IGN:

     So, if you're looking to play PC games with a buttery frame rate, these monitors are ready to deliver a great experience, and it gets even better when paired with Nvidia’s G-Sync or AMD’s FreeSync.

• butterish
• butterlike
• butyraceous
• butyric (rare)

• butteriness

• peanut-buttery

From Middle English boterie, from Old French boterie and Medieval Latin buteria, from Late Latin botāria, from a variant form of butta (“cask, bottle”). The form was probably influenced by butter.

buttery (plural butteries)

1. A room for keeping food or beverages; a storeroom.
   • 1955 October 20, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Minas Tirith”, in The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings […], New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published December 1978, →ISBN, book V, page 39:

     ‘This is the storehouse and buttery of my company of the Guard,’

   • 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 458:

     Pretty Pia from the buttery was a slut who was working her way through every knight in the castle.

2. (UK) A room in a university where snacks are sold.

• nothing-buttery

• Buttrey, Tetbury, Utterby