put away - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

put away (third-person singular simple present puts away, present participle putting away, simple past and past participle **put away)

  1. (transitive) To put (something) in its usual storage place; to place out of the way, clean up.
    Synonyms: store, stow
    Antonym: take out
    Please put away the tools when you are finished.
    I put the clothes away so as to neaten the room.
    • 1879, Richard Jefferies, chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher:
      They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  2. (transitive) To store, add to one's stores for later use.
    Coordinate terms: lay aside, lay away, lay by, lay in, lay up, put aside, put by, save, store, store away, store up
    putting a little away for a rainy day
    Preparing for the worst, they put away food for the winter.
  3. (transitive, colloquial) To consume (food or drink), especially in large quantities.
    You wouldn't think such a small person could put away so much food.
    • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 24:
      "Beautiful!" gasped the curate, gazing at Limpet with watering eyes; and Limpet, who seemed to find the curate's definition perfectly correct, put away the rest of his beer with professional skill, and waited for the curate to finish - a business which the curate, driven to desperation, accomplished in three frantic gulps that bereft him wholly of breath, and caused his eyes to water more than ever.
    • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 97:
      The blonde one, old Bernice, was drinking bourbon and water. She was really putting it away, too.
  4. (transitive) To send (someone) to prison or mental asylum.
    After he was convicted, they put him away for 10 years.
  5. (transitive) To kill someone.
    • 2003, Jason Isbell, Decoration Day:
      It's Decoration Day.
      And I knew the Hill Boys would put us away,
      but my Daddy wasn't afraid.
      He said "We'll fight till the last Lawson's last living day"
  6. (transitive, combat sports, by extension) To knock out an opponent.
    He put away his opponent in the first round.
  7. (transitive, now formal or literary) To discard, divest oneself of.
  8. (obsolete, transitive) To fend off, deflect; to dismiss.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “j”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:
      Also he told kynge Arthur that he shold mysse hym / yet had ye leuer than al your landes to haue me ageyne / A sayd the kynge / syn ye knowe of your aduenture puruey for hit / and put awey by your craftes that mysauenture / Nay said Merlyn it wylle not be / soo he departed from the kynge.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  9. (archaic, transitive) To divorce.
  10. (sports) To take a large lead in a game, especially enough to guarantee victory or make the game no longer competitive.
    They put the game away by scoring three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
  11. (baseball) To strike out a batter.
  12. (baseball) To catch a fly ball or tag out a baserunner.
  13. (tennis, pickleball) To hit the ball in such a way that the opponent cannot reach it; see passing shot.

to place out of the way

to consume in large quantities

to send (someone) to prison — see imprison

to kill someone — see kill