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bunt1
—bunter, n./bunt/, v.t.1. (of a goat or calf) to push with the horns or head; butt.2. Baseball. to bat (a pitched ball) very gently so that it rolls into the infield close to home plate, usually by holding the bat loosely in hands spread apart and allowing the ball to bounce off it.v.i.3. to push (something) with the horns or head.4. Baseball. to bunt a ball.n.5. a push with the head or horns; butt.6. Baseball.a. the act of bunting.b. a bunted ball.bunt2/bunt/, n.1. Naut. the middle part of a square sail.2. the bagging part of a fishing net or bagging middle area of various cloth objects.[1575-85; orig. uncert.]bunt3—bunted, adj./bunt/, n. Plant Pathol.a smut disease of wheat in which the kernels are replaced by the black, foul-smelling spores of fungi of the genus Tilletia. Also called stinking smut.[1595-1605; earlier, puffball; of uncert. orig.]
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also called Stinking Smut,disease of wheat, rye, and other grasses caused by the fungus Tilletia. Normal kernels are replaced by smut “balls” containing powdery masses of brownish-black spores having a dead-fish odour. Two forms of bunt infect wheat: dwarf bunt, caused by Tilletia caries, results in plants a fourth or half normal size; common bunt (T. foetida) normally stunts wheat only a few inches. Smut balls break open and contaminate healthy kernels during harvest. Bunt spores may remain alive in dry soil for several years. Seedling infection occurs shortly after kernels germinate in cool, fairly dry soil. At maturity, a mass of smut spores (teliospores) replaces the entire kernel. Bunt is controlled by using smut-free, fungicide-treated seed of resistant varieties. Carboxin (Vitavax) seed treatment is effective against both soil- and seed-borne bunt spores.* * *
Universalium. 2010.