adj. (venery).—Lecherous (GROSE): also IN RUT and RUTTY. Hence RUTTING (or RUTTING-SPORT) = the deed of kind; RUT, verb. (see quot. 1679); and RUTTER (q.v.).
1598. SHAKESPEARE, All’s Well that Ends Well, iv. 3, 243. A foolish idle boy, but for all that very RUTTISH.
1670. COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft [Works (1725), 192].
| Jup. What with some Goddess he’d have bin | |
| Playing, belike, at in-and-in, | |
| And would be at the RUTTING-SPORT? |
1679. DRYDEN, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, x.
| What Piety forbids the lusty Ram, | |
| Or more salacious Goat, TO RUT their Dam? |
TO KEEP A RUT, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To play the meddler; to make mischief.
