noun
General Slang
scuttlebutt
· noun · military
Gossip, rumour, the unofficial word going round.
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Definitions
1
Word on the deck. Unofficial info passed sailor to sailor, Marine to Marine — the kind that's usually half-wrong but spreads at light speed. Promotion lists, deployment rumours, who's getting relieved, who slept with whose wife. None of it confirmed; all of it discussed.
“Scuttlebutt is we're pushing back to Norfolk a week early.”
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2
Literal shipboard drinking fountain or water cask. Still the official term aboard US Navy vessels.
“Hit the scuttlebutt before formation — it's gonna be a hot one.”
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scuttlebutt In A Sentence
Scuttlebutt is we're pushing back to Norfolk a week early.
Hit the scuttlebutt before formation — it's gonna be a hot one.
Origin & Usage
Originally the cask (butt) of drinking water on a ship, with a hole (scuttle) cut in the top. Sailors gathered round it to drink — and to talk. The water-cooler of the age of sail.
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