spit

Greek soldiers roasting lambs for Easter using spits (sense 1) in 1958

A spit as a landform (sense 2): an aerial photograph of Farewell Spit at the northern tip of the South Island of New Zealand

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /spɪt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪt

The noun is from Middle English spit, spite, spete, spette, spyte, spytte (“rod on which meat is cooked; rod used as a torture instrument; short spear; point of a spear; spine in the fin of a fish; pointed object; dagger symbol; land projecting into the sea”), from Old English spitu (“rod on which meat is cooked; spit”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *spitō (“rod; skewer; spike”), *spituz (“rod on which meat is cooked; stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *spid-, *spey- (“sharp; sharp stick”). The English word is cognate with Danish spid, Dutch spit, German Low German Spitt (“pike, spear; spike; skewer; spit”), Swedish spett (“skewer; spit; type of crowbar”).

The verb is derived from the noun,[2] or from Middle English spiten (“to put on a spit; to impale”), from spit, spite: see above.[3] The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch speten, spitten (modern Dutch speten), Middle Low German speten (Low German spitten, modern German spießen (“to skewer, to spear”), spissen (now dialectal)).[2]

spit (plural spits)

1. A thin metal or wooden rod on which meat is skewered for cooking, often over a fire.

   Synonym: broach

2. A generally low, narrow, pointed, usually sandy peninsula.
   • 1874, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Ordered South”, in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, OCLC 504702577, page 147:

     Or perhaps he may see a group of washerwomen relieved, on a spit of shingle, against the blue sea, […]

spit (third-person singular simple present spits, present participle spitting, simple past and past participle spitted)

1. (transitive) To impale on a spit; to pierce with a sharp object.

   to spit a loin of veal

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii], page 79, column 1:

     [W]hy in a moment looke to ſee / The blind and bloody Souldier, with foule hand / Deſire the Locks of your ſhrill-ſhriking Daughters: / Your Fathers taken by the ſiluer Bears, / And their moſt reuerend Heads daſht to the Walls: / Your naked Infants ſpitted vpon Pykes, / Whiles the mad Mothers, with their howles confus'd, / Doe breake the Clouds, […] / What ſay you? Will you yeeld, and thus auoyd? / Or guiltie in defence, be thus destroy'd.

2. (transitive) To use a spit to cook; to attend to food that is cooking on a spit.

   She’s spitting the roast in the kitchen.

The verb is from Middle English spē̆ten, spete (“to spit (blood, phlegm, saliva, venom, etc.); of a fire: to emit sparks”), from Old English spǣtan (“to spit; to squirt”);[4] or from Middle English spit, spitte, spitten (“to spit (blood, phlegm, saliva, venom, etc.); of a fire: to emit sparks”), from Old English spittan, sypttan (“to spit”),[5][6] both from Proto-Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European *sp(y)ēw, *spyū,[7] ultimately imitative; compare Middle English spitelen (“to spit out, expectorate”)[8] and English spew.[9] The English word is cognate with Danish spytte (“to spit”), North Frisian spütte, Norwegian spytte (“to spit”), Swedish spotta (“to spit”), Old Norse spýta (Faroese spýta (“to spit”), Icelandic spýta (“to spit”)).[6]

The noun is derived from the verb;[10] compare Danish spyt (“spit”), Middle English spit, spitte (“saliva, spittle, sputum”),[11] spet (“saliva, spittle”),[12] spē̆tel (“saliva, spittle”),[13] North Frisian spiit.[10]

spit (third-person singular simple present spits, present participle spitting, simple past and past participle spat or spit)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To evacuate (saliva or another substance) from the mouth, etc.

   Synonym: expectorate

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Matthew 27:30:

     And they ſpit upon him [Jesus Christ], and tooke the reed, and ſmote him on the head.

   • 1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 25; republished London: Arrow Books, Random House Group, 1995, →ISBN, pages 39–40:

     At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To emit or expel in a manner similar to evacuating saliva from the mouth; specifically, to rain or snow slightly.

   a hot pan spitting droplets of fat

   • 1834 October, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “The Steam Excursion”, in Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. In Two Volumes, volume II, 2nd edition, London: John Macrone, […], published 1836, OCLC 912950347, page 310:

     It had been "spitting" with rain for the last half-hour, and now it began to pour in good earnest.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To utter (something) violently.
   • 1915, Amélie Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy), chapter XXXIX, in Shadows of Flames: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, OCLC 977231349, page 240:

     "Why, you little emasculated Don Juan— You—" he spat an unmentionable name— "d'you think I'd fight one of your tin-soldier farces with you? Clear out!"

   • 2004, Mark Gatiss, “The Mystery of the Two Geologists”, in The Vesuvius Club: A Bit of Fluff (A Lucifer Box Novel), New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, 2005, →ISBN, page 23:

     "Gentleman? You?" he spat.

4. (intransitive) To make a spitting sound, like an angry cat.
5. (transitive, slang, hip-hop) To rap, to utter.
   • 2005, Giselle Zado Wasfie, So Fly, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin, →ISBN:

     A group of black guys were spitting rhymes in the corner, slapping hands and egging one another on.

The past tense and past participle spit is an older form, but remains the more common form used by speakers in North America, and is also used often enough by speakers of British and Commonwealth English to be listed as an alternative form by the Collins English Dictionary and OxfordDictionaries.com. A non-standard past participle form is spitten.

spit (countable and uncountable, plural spits)

1. (uncountable) Saliva, especially when expectorated.

   Synonyms: expectoration, spittle

   There was spit all over the washbasin.

2. (countable) An instance of spitting; specifically, a light fall of rain or snow.

The noun is from Middle Dutch speet, spit, Middle Low German spêdt, spit (Low German spit); the word is cognate with Dutch spit, North Frisian spatt, spet, West Frisian spit.[14]

The verb is from Middle English spitten (“to dig”), from Old English spittan (“to dig with a spade”),[15] possibly from spitu (“rod on which meat is cooked; spit”); see further at etymology 1. The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch spetten, spitten (modern Dutch spitten), Middle Low German speten, spitten (Low German spitten), North Frisian spat, West Frisian spitte.[16]

spit (plural spits)

1. The depth to which the blade of a spade goes into the soil when it is used for digging; a layer of soil of the depth of a spade's blade.
   • [1847, James Orchard Halliwell, “SPIT”, in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. [...] In Two Volumes, volume II (J–Z), London: John Russell Smith, […], OCLC 1008510154, page 785, column 1:

     SPIT. (1) The depth a spade goes in digging, about a foot.]

2. The amount of soil that a spade holds; a spadeful.

spit (third-person singular simple present spits, present participle spitting, simple past and past participle spitted)

1. (transitive, dialectal) To dig (something) using a spade; also, to turn (the soil) using a plough.
2. (transitive, dialectal) To plant (something) using a spade.
3. (intransitive, dialectal) To dig, to spade.

   Synonym: delve

• ISTP, PITs, PTIs, pist, pits, sipt, stip, tips

From English speed.

spit

1. speed

• IPA^(key): /spiːt/

  Rhymes: -íːt

From Middle Low German spīt. Compare Old Norse spé, Norwegian spit, English spite, Dutch spijt. See also spej.

spit m

1. Spite, defiance.

   Han åt int na i spit’n

   In defiance he ate nothing.

• spitol
• spituv

From Old Norse *spítr, from Proto-Germanic *spihtiz. Cognate with Old Norse spéttr, spætr, from *spihtaz, *spehtaz. Compare riit from *rihtijaną and witer from *wihtiz.

spit m

1. (in compounds) Woodpecker.

• hakkspit
• kackspit

spit m

1. Capacity.

• spiit