If a road, track, or field is rutted, the surface has deep, narrow lines pressed into it by wheels — cars, trucks, carts, or a tractor. This happens most when the ground is wet and soft, and then it dries hard, so the tracks stay. A rutted road makes a car bounce and pull to one side. One of those lines is a rut; rutted just means the surface is full of them. People also say they are “stuck in a rut” when life feels the same every day. That picture comes from this kind of road, but the word rutted itself is still about the ground, not about someone’s job or feelings.