What does bunt mean?
Bunt is a word most familiar from baseball, where it names both a play and the act behind it. To bunt is to hold the bat loosely and let the pitched ball rebound off it rather than swinging at full power, producing a slow, short hit designed to advance base runners or catch the infield off guard. As a noun, a bunt is the resulting hit itself; common forms include the sacrifice bunt, given up intentionally to move a teammate along, and the squeeze bunt, aimed at scoring a runner from third. Outside sport, bunt has an older agricultural meaning: a fungal disease of wheat that replaces kernels with foul-smelling spores, historically damaging to harvests. There is also a rare dialectal use meaning to push or butt with the head, echoing related words like 'butt.' Compact, tactical, and precise, bunt rewards players who trade power for placement.
(Baseball) A short, deliberately soft hit produced by holding the bat still so that the pitched ball rebounds off it.
"His drag bunt caught the third baseman playing too deep."
Also used for the wheat-smut disease in agricultural writing.
(Baseball) To tap a pitched ball gently with a stationary bat, usually to advance a runner.
"She bunted cleanly down the third-base line."
Standard plural; applies to the baseball noun and, less commonly, to instances of the wheat disease.
"The team practiced bunts every morning before batting practice."
In baseball's early dead-ball era, the bunt was such a feared weapon that some players were nicknamed 'the Butcher' for chopping out hits.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bunt
The origin of bunt is uncertain, which is itself notable for such a well-known sporting term. It appears to have emerged in American English during the nineteenth century as baseball developed its vocabulary, though its earliest recorded uses are not firmly dated. Some lexicographers connect it dialectally to older words meaning 'to push or butt,' suggesting kinship with 'butt' and similar Germanic terms for shoving with the head, but this link is conjectural rather than established. The wheat-disease sense, attested earlier than the baseball one, may be related, though its derivation is likewise unclear. Because of this murky history, any specific claims about bunt's ultimate root should be treated cautiously.
Related word forms
How bunt is actually used
Bunt is overwhelmingly used in baseball contexts, where 'sacrifice bunt' and 'squeeze bunt' are standard tactical terms. The agricultural sense (wheat smut disease) is technical and largely confined to farming and plant pathology literature. A rare dialectal verb meaning 'to butt with the head' exists but is now uncommon.
Easily confused with bunt
"Butt" means to strike or push with the head or horns (or the rear end), whereas "bunt" as a baseball term means a deliberately soft, controlled hit.
A "punt" is a long kick of a dropped ball in football, while a "bunt" is a softly tapped ball in baseball.