butter
part of speech
noun (butter, uncountable); verb (butter, butters, buttered, buttering)
meaning for a pupil
1) Butter is a soft, yellow food made from cream, which people spread on bread or use in cooking. tree →
2) To butter something means to spread butter on it. tree →
3) Peanut butter and other «butters» are smooth spreads made from crushed nuts or seeds. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: Butter in the Bible is often made from the milk of cows or sheep. It was a sign of rich food and plenty. Interpretation: Job remembers his past blessing as a time when his path ran with butter and oil. The tradition reads this as a picture of God's abundance in a good life. In the primary lessons: In cooking lessons butter is used in cakes, biscuits and sauces; it melts when warm and goes hard in the fridge, which is a good example of melting and solidifying in science. Butter is made by churning (shaking or stirring) cream until the fat sticks together. In health lessons butter is a fat, so it is eaten in small amounts. Phrases: bread and butter, peanut butter, butter up (to flatter), butterfingers (someone who drops things).
examples
- When my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil! (Writings JOB.29.6, JPS 1917) tree →
- Spread some butter on your toast. tree →
- Mum buttered the bread for our sandwiches. tree →
- Butter melts in a hot pan. tree →
- We made butter at school by shaking cream in a jar. tree →
- Keep the butter in the fridge so it stays fresh. tree →
- I'm allergic to peanuts, so I can't eat peanut butter. tree →
- You need butter, sugar, flour and eggs to make a cake. tree →
- Oops, butterfingers! You dropped the ball again. tree →
- “Curly is taking both butter and honey.” tree →
note
Uncountable: some butter, a piece of butter (not «a butter»). Butter is made from milk, so people with a milk allergy cannot eat it. Do not use butter on burns; that is a myth — cool a burn with cool running water instead.
In the corpora
- When my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil!
- Mice prefer grains, seeds and sweet foods to cheese, so peanut butter works better in humane traps.
- Mice will eat cheese, but they prefer grains, seeds and sweet foods, so people baiting traps usually use peanut butter.
- The March Hare dips it in his tea and gloomily repeats that it was the best butter.
- The first witness is the Hatter, still holding his teacup and bread-and-butter.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «butter» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.