put

Etymology 1

From Middle English putten, puten, poten, from Old English putian, *pūtian ("to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung (“pushing, impulse, instigation, urging”)) and potian (“to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad”), both from Proto-Germanic *putōną (“to stick, stab”), which is of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bud- (“to shoot, sprout”), which would make it cognate with Sanskrit बुन्द (bundá, “arrow”), Lithuanian budė, and budis (“mushroom, fungus”). Compare also related Old English pȳtan (“to push, poke, thrust, put out (the eyes)”). Cognate with Dutch poten (“to set, plant”), Danish putte (“to put”), Swedish putta, pötta, potta (“to strike, knock, push gently, shove, put away”), Norwegian putte (“to set, put”), Norwegian pota (“to poke”), Icelandic pota (“to poke”), Dutch peuteren (“to pick, poke around, dig, fiddle with”).

verb

1. To place something somewhere.
   She put her books on the table.
   Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’ 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess
2. To bring or set into a certain relation, state or condition.
   Put your house in order!
   He is putting all his energy into this one task.
   She tends to put herself in dangerous situations.
3. (finance) To exercise a put option.
   He got out of his Procter and Gamble bet by putting his shares at 80.
4. To express something in a certain manner.
   When you put it that way, I guess I can see your point.
   All this is ingeniously and ably put. 1846, Julius Hare, The Mission of the Comforter
5. (athletics) To throw a heavy iron ball, as a sport. (See shot put. Do not confuse with putt.)
6. To steer; to direct one's course; to go.
   His fury thus appeased, he puts to land.
7. To play a card or a hand in the game called put.
8. To attach or attribute; to assign.
   to put a wrong construction on an act or expression
9. (obsolete) To lay down; to give up; to surrender.
10. To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention.
    to put a question; to put a case
    1708-1710, George Berkeley, Philosophical Commentaries or Common-Place Book Put the perceptions and you put the mind.
11. (obsolete) To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige.
    These wretches put us upon all mischief. 1722, Jonathan Swift, The Last Speech of Ebenezer Elliston
12. (mining) To convey coal in the mine, as for example from the working to the tramway.

noun

1. (business) A right to sell something at a predetermined price.
2. (finance) Short for put option.
   He bought a January '08 put for Procter and Gamble at 80 to hedge his bet.
   c. 1900, Universal Cyclopaedia Entry for Stock-Exchange A put and a call may be combined in one instrument, the holder of which may either buy or sell as he chooses at the fixed price.
3. The act of putting; an action; a movement; a thrust; a push.
   the put of a ball
4. (uncountable) An old card game.
   Among the in-door amusements of the costermonger is card-playing, at which many of them are adepts. The usual games are all-fours, all-fives, cribbage, and put. 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor

Etymology 2

Unknown. Perhaps related to Welsh pwt, itself possibly borrowed from English butt (“stub, thicker end”).

noun

1. (obsolete) A fellow, especially an eccentric or elderly one; a duffer.
   Queer Country-puts extol Queen Bess's reign, And of lost hospitality complain. 1733, James Bramston, The Man of Taste
   The old put wanted to make a parson of me, but d—n me, thinks I to myself, I'll nick you there, old cull; the devil a smack of your nonsense shall you ever get into me. 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 244
   Any number of varlet to be had for a few ducats and what droll puts the citizens seem in it all! 1870, Frederic Harrison, “The Romance of the Peerage: Lothair,”, in Fortnightly Review

Etymology 3

Old French pute.

noun

1. (obsolete) A prostitute.