1) The thick or hinder part of a hide used for sole leather, especially that of an ox or cow: it was reduced to a rough rectangle by removing the belly and shoulders.
It is on record in the inventory of William Earl, a Knaresborough shoemaker, and later in a Quarter Sessions case: 1541 to John Symeson of Mynskippe for a pair of buttes ijs
1735 had one bend rolled in the said butt hide of leather, Huddersfield.
2) A common Yorkshire place-name with several possible meanings.
This is a common place-name generic in Yorkshire and some examples go back to the twelfth century: n.d. Scortebuttes
1397 Midilfeld, Estfeld and les Buttes, Heck. In some cases the word appears to derive from ‘to abut’, for the name was given to strips of land in the open field which abutted on a boundary or were at right angles to other groups of strips. In a few very early place-names some other explanation may have to be found: c.1260 quoddam asartum quod vocatur le Buttes, Calverley. An assart was a piece of land cleared of trees so the reference in this case may be to the ‘butts’ of trees: this meaning has not otherwise been recorded earlier than c.1600. A few place-names may mark the sites of former archery butts: these were located in each township and they are referred to as buts in Wakefield in 1367. Later, by-laws provide more detailed information: 1497 all men shall be ready at the warning of the bailiff of the church … for making the buttes, Methley
1519 that the buttys be mayde be Withesonday, Selby
1572 the said inquest giveth warning that the common butt be made before Whitsunday, Doncaster
1636 for all such as shall resorte to use their recreation … in shootinge at the buttes there, with sufficiente waye and passage to and from the same, Almondbury.
3) A cask, usually for wine or ale.
1613 j but j barrel, Stockeld.