to butt on
- phrasal verb
Examples
-
"It is people putting cigarette butts on the street."
Blog text (8) -
The two properties butt on each other, separated only by a low fence.
-
Their garden butts on the neighbor's yard, making it easy for children to play together.
-
The house butts on the edge of a beautiful forest, offering a serene view.
Synonyms
To be next to a country or area along a boundary
Next to and touching another place, like a house next to a park
To be next to another area or country
To be next to another building or piece of land, sharing a border
To be next to another place, sharing a border
To be next to something and share a border
To be next to something and touch its edge
Antonyms
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to adjoin' is directly derivable from combining the verb 'butt' (to border on) with the preposition 'on'; together they straightforwardly express adjacency. This verb + preposition composition follows a common English pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Butt on may come from the simple picture of two things meeting end to end, with their butts, or ends, pushed together at a border. So it came to mean 'to touch' or 'to adjoin'.