Past tense of bunt; in baseball, to have gently tapped a pitch with the bat so the ball travels a short distance, or other meanings of hitting/butting.
From 'bunt,' which came from either a dialectal English word meaning 'to push' or possibly from a Scandinavian root; the baseball usage emerged in the 1800s.
Bunting is one of baseball's sneakiest tactics—players deliberately hit weakly to catch fielders off-guard, turning the sport's power-hitting expectation on its head.
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