to butt against
1
5.6
- phrasal verb
- /bʌt əˈɡɛnst/
:
lindar con
- There were faint but discernible indentations on the carpet, which showed that the cabinet had originally butted up against the one next to it.
Or are you going to constantly butt up against that glass ceiling in your life and take the path of the victim?
- Or are you going to constantly butt up against that glass ceiling in your life and take the path of the victim?
- Eventually we're going to go to the point where they're we're butting up against the tipping point now.
Examples
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I'm not, I, I, I struggle with this because I want to think that way, but I butt up against science as well.
-
Barely a block north of the more sedate Main Street, Canal Street was almost like another country butted up against Palmyra.
Fiction book (1990) -
You can go like this and you can actually butt up right against that that line if you want.
-
Or are you going to constantly butt up against that glass ceiling in your life and take the path of the victim?
-
However, they've got it butted up right against two pretty large blower fans.
-
Gilbert's OK Chandler butts up against the old part of Mesa.
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And so we ended up butting up against old Mosul, which is a very historic little place in Mosul rights biblical.
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Against that sunlight, a dark tower loomed on the roadway, its foundations butted against the stream.
Fiction book (1992) -
Williams had sold his big farm down on Beaverdam, as he was getting on in years, and he and Mary Sue had bought a little homestead that butted up against the Smoky National Park.
Fiction book (1990) -
The library butts against the old school building, creating a shared courtyard.
Synonyms
46
2.3
To be next to a country or area along a boundary
33
5.2
Next to and touching another place, like a house next to a park
9
8.6
To be next to another area or country
7
6.9
To be next to another building or piece of land, sharing a border
3
3.2
To be next to another place, sharing a border
1
7.3
To be next to something and share a border
1
9.1
To touch the edge of another piece of land or a building
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'butt' as a verb meaning to border or be adjacent, combined with the preposition 'against' indicating contact, yields the sense of sharing a boundary. This spatial, contact-based composition follows normal English patterns and would be clear to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
The verb butt against comes from the picture of two things touching at their ends, like one fence end that butts up against another. That's why to butt against something means 'to be directly next to' or 'to share a boundary with' it.