ass

noun

1)

he rode on an ass

Syn:

donkey, jackass, jenny; burro

2) informal

don't be a silly ass

Syn:

fool, idiot, dolt, simpleton, imbecile; dimwit, halfwit, dummy, dum-dum, loon, jackass, cretin, jerk, fathead, blockhead, jughead, boob, bozo, buffoon, numbskull, numbnuts, lummox, dunce, moron, meatball, doofus, ninny, nincompoop, dipstick, lamebrain, chump, peabrain, thickhead, dumb-ass, wooden-head, pinhead, airhead, birdbrain; nitwit, twit, turkey, goofball, putz; dated tomfool, muttonhead

3) informal

I'm tired of sitting around on my big fat ass

See buttocks

••

ass, arse

Arse is the spelling of the British slang term — in the anatomical sense, that is, not in the horse sense. In American English, ass is the spelling for both meanings. There's a story behind this. Today ass means both (1) "donkey" and (2) "a person's bottom." Sense 1 is the historical one; sense 2 originated in the mid-eighteenth century as the result of a phonological change, as arse and ass became homophones. By the early nineteenth century, it was possible to engage in wordplay between the words — as in an 1802 cartoon ("Neddy [a donkey] Paces at Tunbridge Wells [in Kent, England]"), in which one female rider says to another, "I’ll show my Ass against any Lady's at Wells." — BG