PUTTY
What does "PUTTY" mean?
A soft, malleable paste used to seal glass in window frames or fill holes.
Meanings
- A soft, pliable compound, traditionally of whiting and linseed oil, used for sealing or filling. He smoothed putty around the loose pane with his thumb.
- Someone easily manipulated or influenced. Flatter him a little and he's putty in your hands. figurative
- To fill, seal, or coat with putty. She puttied the nail holes before painting.
Did you know?
- Silly Putty began as a wartime accident: around 1943, engineer James Wright mixed boric acid with silicone oil hunting for a rubber substitute and got a bouncing, copying, stretching goo that had no military use at all.
Word origin
From French 'potée' meaning 'a potful' (calcined material kept in a pot), from 'pot'; the polishing and glazing powder took the name of its container.
Remember it
PUTTY sounds like 'put-ty' - it's what you PUT into a gap to fill it.
A little poem
Grey thumbprint of paste-
pressed soft into the old wood,
it learns the gap's shape.
haiku
Wordplay
- My flattery worked on the glazier - he was putty in my hands, which is funny, because so was his job.
What it teaches
The most useful things are the ones soft enough to take a shape and patient enough to hold it.
Quick facts
What does PUTTY mean?
A soft, malleable paste used to seal glass in window frames or fill holes.
Is PUTTY a valid word?
Yes — PUTTY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is PUTTY?
PUTTY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does PUTTY come from?
From French 'potée' meaning 'a potful' (calcined material kept in a pot), from 'pot'; the polishing and glazing powder took the name of its container.
What can PUTTY teach us?
The most useful things are the ones soft enough to take a shape and patient enough to hold it.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.