strunt

Of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots strunt (“spirits, whisky, toddy”).

strunt (countable and uncountable, plural strunts)

1. (Scotland, uncountable) Spirituous liquor; alcoholic drink.
   • 1785, Robert Burns, Halloween:

     Syne, wi' a social glass o' strunt, / They parted aff careerin / Fu' blythe that night.

2. (Scotland, countable) A drink of spirits; a dram.
3. (UK, dialect, countable) A sulky fit; sullenness.
   • 1720, Allan Ramsay, Poems, page 161:

     Wow, man, that's unco sad! --Is that ye'r jo Has ta'en the strunt!

• struntish
• strunty

strunt (third-person singular simple present strunts, present participle strunting, simple past and past participle strunted)

1. To walk boldly.
   • 1789, David Davidson, Thoughts on the Seasons, &c., page 50:

     "Upo' the hill" the callan cries, "She cock'd her gaucy runt; An' to Strathfallan green Burn-brae, Fu' nimbly she did strunt.

   • 1876, “The Big Man's Burial”, in The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, page 266:

     High were their hopes for food and cash, And drink to keep them strunting, Which cures the yisk and waterbrash, And sets the pipe a lunting

   • 1900, Robert Burns, “To A Louse, On Seeing One On a Lady's Bonnet At Church”, in The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, page 52:

     Your impudence protects you sairly, I canna say but ye strunt rarely Owre gauze and lace.

Compare Middle High German strunze (“stump”).

strunt (plural strunts)

1. (UK, dialectal) A tail or rump
   • 1673, Robert Almond, The English Horsman and Complete Farrier, page 46:

     The Brain is acknowledged by all, to be the Fountain, from whence Sinews have their rise; particularly, there is derived thence one great Tendon, which passeth through the cavity of Neck and Back-bone, extending it self to the nethermost joint of the Strunt.

   • 1829, Stephen Glover, The History of the County of Derby, page 613:

     A tanner's dog invited another dog of his intimate acquaintance to an entertainment, but the latter dog not being satisfied with his feast, as he came away feloniously stole away the strunt of a tail , and the tanner's dog soon after hearing of the felony, quarrelled with his acquaintance, upon which he lost his life;

   • 1961, D.H. Lawrence, “Adolf”, in Edward David McDonald, editor, Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D.H. Lawrence, page 16:

     S a pretty little dog! 's a pretty little doggy! — ay! — yes! — he is, yes! — Wag thy strunt, then! Wag thy strunt, Rexie!

2. (UK, dialectal) Anything short or contracted

From Middle Low German strunt, from Old Saxon *strunt, from Proto-West Germanic *strunt.

strunt n

1. nonsense; that which is not worth paying attention to

Interchangeable with skit (“shit”) in various expressions, perhaps originating as a euphemism for some of them. Compare skit samma and strunt samma, skita i and strunta i, skitsnack and struntsnack, skitsak and struntsak, etc.

strunt c

1. (dated) an insignificant person

• strunt samma
• strunta i
• struntprat
• struntsak (“trifle”)
• struntsnack
• struntsumma

• strunt in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• strunt in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• strunt in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)