Literary notes about rut (AI summary)
The term “rut” appears in literature with a rich duality, functioning both as a descriptor of physical grooves and as a metaphor for stubborn, unchanging states. It is often employed literally to depict the tracks left by wheels or animals—evoking images of muddy paths trapping a horse [1, 2, 3] or even a wagon’s axle striking a groove in the road [4]. Simultaneously, “rut” conveys the concept of mental or social stagnation, where characters express frustration at being ensnared in habitual or outdated conditions [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Moreover, its usage extends to the natural realm, notably in references to mating behaviors and seasonal rhythms [10, 11, 12]. This versatility allows authors across eras—from Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky to Jack London and Edith Wharton—to imbue both concrete and abstract passages with layered meaning [13, 14, 15, 16].
- And again he lashed the horse, which had got stuck in a rut.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - For the next half hour I had a bewildering sense of flying over the snow-clad earth, coming now and then in contact with it as the car struck a rut.
— from My Actor-Husband: A true story of American stage life by Anonymous - The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at last came to a standstill when one of the wheels sank to the hub in a rut.
— from The Aesop for Children by Aesop - Only pausing, he whirled, struck the track, and sped on, his round black body stretching from rut to rut of the lane.
— from Roof and Meadow by Dallas Lore Sharp - “They all liked your speech so much the other night they felt you could help us out of the rut we’ve got into.”
— from Cloudy Jewel by Grace Livingston Hill - “That’s why I intend to get out of this rut!”
— from The Prairie Child by Arthur Stringer - Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter - On his fortieth birthday Martin Sutter decided life was too short to continue in the rut that had been his existence for more than twenty years.
— from Made in Tanganyika by Carl Richard Jacobi - Born in a rut, and you can't root 'em out of it.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - Such a discharge of ova occurs in the lower animals at the time of heat or rut, and in women during menstruation.
— from Fruits of Philosophy: A Treatise on the Population Question by Charles Knowlton - Wielding a large bow, his prowess was like that of an elephant in rut.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 - The two then began to exhibit their prowess (upon each other) like roaring bulls of great strength at the sight of a cow in rut.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 - Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow?
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - I loved to fall into the common rut, and had a whole-hearted terror of any kind of eccentricity in myself.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Suddenly, they saw its back end drop down, as into a rut, and the gee-pole, with Hal clinging to it, jerk into the air.
— from The call of the wild by Jack London - Now, as he reviewed his past, he saw into what a deep rut he had sunk.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
