From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrutrut /rʌt/ noun 1 [countable]TTRLINE a deep narrow track left in soft ground by a wheel2 → in a rut3 [uncountable] (also the rut) technicalHBA the period of the year when some male animals, especially deer, are sexually activein rut a stag in rut
Examples from the Corpus
rut• The carriage became stuck in a rut, and we all had to get out and push.• The road to the farm had deep ruts in it.• It had the face of an elephant in rut, Melanie thought.• It was the intent face of female in rut - yet it was also the face of Justine, impersonal with death.• She squelched along in the muddy ruts left by the cattle, avoiding other more unpleasant tokens of their passage.• Her firefly eyes clicked open and closed, and along her forehead the horizontal grooves had deepened into sharp narrow ruts.• His owner is into a living but predictable rut.• Some ruts are deeper than others, but all of them can do damage to your career.• Jeri and I thrashed ahead, following subsidiary ruts in the dried mud, and then tire marks in the grass.• Fighting occurs during the rut as males compete for dominance.Origin rut 1. (1500-1600) Perhaps from Old French route; → ROUTE12. (1100-1200) Old French “loud sound made by a deer”, from Latin rugire “to roar” 