bout

Meanings

1. A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant, like an illness.
2. A boxing match.
3. An assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
4. A roller derby match.
5. A fighting competition.
6. A bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
7. The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.

1. To contest a bout.

1. Apheretic form of about.

1. A surname

Etymology

From Middle English bout, bowt, bught (whence also modern English bought (“bend, curve”)), probably from Old English *buht (“bend, turn”), an unrecorded variant of Old English byht (“a bend, curve”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“a bend”). Equivalent to bow + -t. Doublet of bight and bought. For the sense development compare bender.