rut

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rut1

▶noun

• 1 a long deep track made by the repeated passage of the wheels of vehicles.

• 2 a routine or pattern of behaviour that has become dull and unproductive but is hard to change.

– derivatives
rutted adjective,
rutty adjective .

– origin C16: prob. from OFr. rute (see route).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rut2

▶noun an annual period of sexual activity in deer and some other mammals, during which the males fight each other for access to the females. ▶verb (ruts, rutting, rutted) engage in such activity.

– derivatives
ruttish adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr., from L. rugitus, from rugire ‘to roar’.