spoon
/spuːn/ noun, verb
Forms spoons spooning spooned
- noun An implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.
- noun An implement for stirring food while being prepared; a wooden spoon.
- noun A measure that will fit into a spoon; a spoonful.
- noun (golf, archaic) A wooden-headed golf club with moderate loft, similar to the modern fairway wood.
- noun (slang) An oar.
- noun (fishing) A type of metal lure resembling the concave head of a tablespoon.
- noun (dentistry, informal) A spoon excavator.
- noun A South African shrub of the genus Spatalla.
- verb To serve using a spoon; to transfer (something) with a spoon. “Sarah spooned some apple sauce onto her plate.”
- verb (intransitive, dated) To flirt; to make advances; to court, to interact romantically or amorously.
- verb (transitive or intransitive, informal, of persons) To lie nestled front-to-back, following the contours of the bodies, in a manner reminiscent of stacked spoons.
- verb (transitive or intransitive, informal, of persons, by extension) To have sex in such a position.
- verb (tennis, golf, cricket, croquet) To hit (the ball) weakly, pushing it with a lifting motion, instead of striking with an audible knock.
- verb (intransitive) To fish with a concave spoon bait.
- verb (transitive) To catch by fishing with a concave spoon bait.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English spoon, spoune, spone, spon (“spoon, chip of wood”), from Old English spōn (“sliver, chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu, from Proto-Germanic *spēnuz (“chip, flake, shaving”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peH- (“chip, shaving, log, length of wood”).
Cognate with Scots spun, spon (“spoon, shingle”), West Frisian spoen (“chip”), Dutch spaan (“chip, flinders”), German Span (“chip, flake, shaving”), Swedish spån (“chip, flake”), Norwegian Nynorsk spon (“chip, spoon”), Faroese spónur (“wood chip; spoon”), Ancient Greek σφήν (sphḗn, “wedge”)(though the connection to the Greek is likely impossible by modern reconstructions of PIE). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cuculer, coclear (“spoon”), from Old English cuculer, cuceler, cucler, borrowed from Latin cochlear (“spoon”).
The "metaphoric unit of personal energy" sense was coined by writer and disability advocate Christine Miserandino in 2003 (see spoon theory).
Uncertain. Compare spoom.
Webster’s 1913
- verb See Spoom. [Obs.]
- noun An implement consisting of a small bowl (usually a shallow oval) with a handle, used especially in preparing or eating food.
- noun Anything which resembles a spoon in shape; esp. (Fishing), a spoon bait.
- verb To take up in, a spoon.
Etymology [OE. spon, AS. sp, a chip; akin to D. spaan, G. span, Dan. spaan, Sw. spån, Icel. spánn, spónn, a chip, a spoon. sq. root170. Cf. Span-new.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “spoon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details