gutter

Etymology 1

From Middle English gutter, guttur, goter, from Anglo-Norman guttere, from Old French goutiere (French gouttière), ultimately from Latin gutta (“drop”).

noun

1. A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water.
   They a not so clean as they might be, since the water [is] carried off by only one gutter, in the centre of t[he] street 1836, Charles F. Partington, “Paris”, in The British Cyclopaedia of Literature, History, Geography, Law and Politics, page 202
2. A ditch along the side of a road.
   In nearly all of the towns the gutters are filled with vegetation, or have been neglected for so long a time that the roadway becomes its own drainage bed. 1902, Massachusetts Highway Commission, Annual Report of the Massachusetts Highway Commission, volume 9
   ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’ 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess
   As Mike parked the vehicle, its right wheels sank into an unpaved gutter gradually worn irregular and deep by the rush of rainwater flowing down the street. 2006, Henry Clark, Trophy Boy, page 122
   Gutters separated the sidewalk from the road on both sides and flowed with muddy water. 2008, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
   Meltwater gathered in the icy ruts of the unpaved road, the pressure wearing thin channels in the packed snow. Along the gutter the rivulets of spring runoff cut a course to the storm sewer 2011, Judith Duncan, Murphy's Child
3. A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough.
   The gutters must be cleared of leaves a few times a year.
4. (bowling">bowling) A groove down the sides of a bowling">bowling lane.
   You can decide to use the bumpers to avoid the ball going down the gutter every time.
5. A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement.
6. Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.
7. (typography) A space between printed columns of text.
8. (printing) One of a number of pieces of wood or metal, grooved in the centre, used to separate the pages of type in a form.
9. (philately) An unprinted space between rows of stamps.
10. (Britain) A drainage channel.
11. The notional locus of things, acts, or events which are distasteful, ill bred or morally questionable.
12. (figurative) A low, vulgar state.
    Get your mind out of the gutter.
    What kind of gutter language is that? I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.
13. (comics) The spaces between comic book panels.

verb

1. To flow or stream; to form gutters.
2. (of a candle) To melt away by having the molten wax run down along the side of the candle.
3. (of a small flame) To flicker as if about to be extinguished.
4. (transitive) To send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins.
5. (transitive) To supply with a gutter or gutters.
6. (transitive) To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.
7. (transitive, uncommon) To make worse; to show emphasis that something has gotten worse.
   The students' performance guttered after the school event.
   The patient's state would soon gutter.

Etymology 2

gut + -er

noun

1. One who or that which guts.
   A Galilean Rabbi? When did this Province of diggers in dirt and gutters of fish send forth Rabbis? Thou makest a jest. 1921, Bernie Babcock, The Coming of the King, page 151
   An old, rusty coat hanger made a rudimentary fish-gutter. 2013, Don Keith, Shelley Stewart, Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story, page 34