punt
    n 1: formerly the basic unit of money in Ireland; equal to 100
         pence [syn: Irish pound, Irish punt, punt, pound]
    2: an open flat-bottomed boat used in shallow waters and
       propelled by a long pole
    3: (football) a kick in which the football is dropped from the
       hands and kicked before it touches the ground; "the punt
       traveled 50 yards"; "punting is an important part of the
       game" [syn: punt, punting]
    v 1: kick the ball
    2: propel with a pole; "pole barges on the river"; "We went
       punting in Cambridge" [syn: punt, pole]
    3: place a bet on; "Which horse are you backing?"; "I'm betting
       on the new horse" [syn: bet on, back, gage, stake,
       game, punt]

Punt \Punt\, n. (Football)
   The act of punting the ball.
   [1913 Webster]

Punt \Punt\, v. i.
   1. To boat or hunt in a punt.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   2. To punt a football.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

Punt \Punt\, v. i. [F. ponter, or It. puntare, fr. L. punctum
   point. See Point.]
   To play at basset, baccara, faro. or omber; to gamble.
   [1913 Webster]

         She heard . . . of his punting at gaming tables.
                                                  --Thackeray.
   [1913 Webster]

Punt \Punt\, n.
   Act of playing at basset, baccara, faro, etc.
   [1913 Webster]

Punt \Punt\, n. [AS., fr. L. ponto punt, pontoon. See
   Pontoon.] (Naut.)
   A flat-bottomed boat with square ends. It is adapted for use
   in shallow waters.
   [1913 Webster]

Punt \Punt\, v. t.
   1. To propel, as a boat in shallow water, by pushing with a
      pole against the bottom; to push or propel (anything) with
      exertion. --Livingstone.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Football) To kick (the ball) before it touches the
      ground, when let fall from the hands.
      [1913 Webster]

punt
 v.

    [from the punch line of an old joke referring to American football: ?Drop
    back 15 yards and punt!?]

    1. To give up, typically without any intention of retrying. ?Let's punt the
    movie tonight.? ?I was going to hack all night to get this feature in, but
    I decided to punt? may mean that you've decided not to stay up all night,
    and may also mean you're not ever even going to put in the feature.

    2. More specifically, to give up on figuring out what the Right Thing is
    and resort to an inefficient hack.

    3. A design decision to defer solving a problem, typically because one
    cannot define what is desirable sufficiently well to frame an algorithmic
    solution. ?No way to know what the right form to dump the graph in is ?
    we'll punt that for now.?

    4. To hand a tricky implementation problem off to some other section of the
    design. ?It's too hard to get the compiler to do that; let's punt to the
    runtime system.?

    5. To knock someone off an Internet or chat connection; a punter thus, is a
    person or program that does this.

punt

   (From the punch line of an old joke referring to American
   football: "Drop back 15 yards and punt!") 1. To give up,
   typically without any intention of retrying.  "Let's punt the
   movie tonight."  "I was going to hack all night to get this
   feature in, but I decided to punt" may mean that you've
   decided not to stay up all night, and may also mean you're not
   ever even going to put in the feature.

   2. More specifically, to give up on figuring out what the
   Right Thing is and resort to an inefficient hack.

   3. A design decision to defer solving a problem, typically
   because one cannot define what is desirable sufficiently well
   to frame an algorithmic solution.  "No way to know what the
   right form to dump the graph in is - we'll punt that for
   now."

   4. To hand a tricky implementation problem off to some other
   section of the design.  "It's too hard to get the compiler to
   do that; let's punt to the run-time system."

   [Jargon File]