Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUT'MENT, n. [Old Fr. aboutement, from bout, but, end.]

1. A buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier. – Johnson. Encyc.
2. The mass of stone or solid work at the end of a bridge, by which the extreme arches are sustained. The mass of stone at the end of a timber bridge, without arches, is called by the same name. It is written also abutment.