bout

noun

1. A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant, like an illness.

   “a bout of drought”

   “a coughing bout”

   “a long bout of the flu”

   “The "King" responded well to this treatment and would have maintained 60 m.p.h. up the steepest part had it not been for a brief bout of slipping, which was quickly corrected by Driver Bailes ("Autumn leaves", he remarked laconically).”

   “Jackson won lasting fame for his treatment of an alcoholic's painful disintegration in his first novel, The Lost Weekend, in which he suggested that the root of his protagonist's bouts with the bottle could be found in his repressed homosexuality.”

2. A boxing match.

   “An Italian boxer abandoned her bout at the Paris Olympics after only 46 seconds on Thursday, refusing to continue after taking a heavy punch from an Algerian opponent who had been disqualified from last year’s world championships over questions about her eligibility to compete in women’s sports.”

3. An assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
4. A roller derby match.
5. A fighting competition.

   “Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.”

6. A bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
7. (dated)The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.

   “The outside bout of each land is ploughed two inches deeper, and from thence the water runs into cross furrows, which are dug with a spade […] I have an instrument of great power, called a scarifier, for this purpose. It is drawn by four horses, and completely prepares the land for the seed at each bout.”

   “It is in this manner that the ploughs are reversed at the termination of each bout of the field.”

   “The last two rounds must be ploughed shallower, and on the last bout the strip left should be one furrow width for a two-furrow plough, two for a three-furrow, and so on. […]”

verb

1. To contest a bout.

prep

1. (colloquial)Apheretic form of about.

   “They're talking bout you!”

   “Maddy is bout to get beat up!”

name

1. A surname