putt

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Scots putt (“to put”). Compare Middle Dutch putten (“to dig a hit”). The Old English putian (“to push; thrust; put; place”) derivation is commonly assumed, although no longer valid. In Dutch, the word is instanced in a description of golf in an early seventeenth-century edition of Pieter van Afferden's Tyrocinium linguae latinae. All derive from Proto-Germanic *putōną.

noun

1. (golf) The act of tapping a golf ball lightly on a putting green.

verb

1. (golf) To lightly strike a golf ball with a putter.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic, from putt-putt.

noun

1. (onomatopoeia) A regular sound characterized by the sound of "putt putt putt putt...", such as made by some slowly stroking internal combustion engines.
2. (Britain, motorcycling, slang) A motorcycle.

verb

1. To make a putting sound.
2. (motorcycling, slang) To ride one's motorcycle, to go for a motorcycle ride.
3. To move along slowly.

Etymology 3

verb

1. Obsolete form of put.
   We have a custome, that when one sneezes, every one els putts off his hatt, and bowes, and cries God bless ye Sir. c. 1691, John Aubrey, Naturall Historie of Wiltshire