I. gut 1 /ɡʌt/ BrE AmE noun
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: guttas (plural) ]
1 . gut reaction/feeling/instinct informal a reaction or feeling that you are sure is right, although you cannot give a reason for it:
He had a gut feeling that Sarah was lying.
2 . COURAGE guts [plural] informal the courage and determination you need to do something difficult or unpleasant:
It takes guts to start a new business on your own.
have the guts (to do something)
No one had the guts to tell Paul what a mistake he was making.
3 . INSIDE YOUR BODY
a) guts [plural] all the organs in someone’s body, especially when they have come out of their body:
There were blood and guts all over the place.
b) [countable] the tube through which food passes from your stomach SYN intestine :
It can take 72 hours for food to pass through the gut.
4 . STOMACH [countable] informal someone’s stomach, especially when it is large SYN belly :
He felt as if someone had just kicked him in the gut.
Phil has a huge beer gut (=unattractive fat stomach caused by drinking too much beer) .
5 . STRING [uncountable] a type of strong string made from the ↑ intestine of an animal, and used for musical instruments such as ↑ violin s ⇨ ↑ catgut
6 . MACHINE/EQUIPMENT guts [plural] informal the parts inside a machine or piece of equipment
7 . MOST IMPORTANT PARTS guts [plural] informal the most important or basic parts of something
guts of
the guts of the problem
8 . work/sweat your guts out ( also slog your guts out British English ) informal to work very hard
9 . at gut level if you know something at gut level, you feel sure about it, though you could not give a reason for it:
She knew at gut level that he was guilty.
10 . I’ll have sb’s guts for garters British English informal used to say that you would like to punish someone severely for something they have done
⇨ ↑ blood-and-guts , ⇨ bust a gut at ↑ bust 1 (3), ⇨ hate sb’s guts at ↑ hate 1 (2), ⇨ spill your guts at ↑ spill 1 (4)
II. gut 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle gutted , present participle gutting ) [transitive]
1 . [usually passive] to completely destroy the inside of a building, especially by fire:
The building was completely gutted by fire.
2 . to remove the organs from inside a fish or animal in order to prepare it for cooking
3 . to change something by removing some of the most important or central parts
⇨ ↑ gutted