butt in

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butt in (third-person singular simple present butts in, present participle butting in, simple past and past participle butted in)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To join a conversation or situation in which one is not welcome or invited; to interject (connotes a rude or discourteous interruption).

   Hey, this is none of your business; don’t butt in!

   Forgive me for butting in.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 125:

     That spurt of rage took Bradly in the midriff before he could control it. He was standing over Podson with such eminent threat in his bristling beard that Podson said sulkily, "Oh, all right, I don't want to butt in, if you feel like that about it."

2. (transitive) To join a queue not at the end, but in the middle.

• butt out

• buttinsky

• unbitt