Link Centre Dictionary

spew

UK/spjuː/ US/ˈspju/ uncommon informal slang

verb

1.

expel or eject (saliva or phlegm or sputum) from the mouth

  • “The father of the victim spat at the alleged murderer”
Synonyms
2.

eject or send out in large quantities, also metaphorical

  • “the volcano spews out molten rocks every day”
  • “The editors of the paper spew out hostile articles about the Presidential candidate”
Synonyms
3.

eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

  • “After drinking too much, the students vomited”
  • “He purged continuously”
  • “The patient regurgitated the food we gave him last night”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

From Middle English spewen, from Old English spīwan, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ptyēw- (“to spit, vomit”). Germanic cognates include English spit, West Frisian spije, Dutch spuien, Dutch spuwen, Low German speen, spiien, German speien (“to spew, spit, vomit”), Swedish spy, Danish spy, Faroese spýggja, Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌴𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽 (speiwan). Also cognate, through Indo-European, with Latin spuō (“spit”, verb), Ancient Greek πτύω (ptúō, “spit, vomit”), Albanian fyt (“throat”), Armenian թուք (tʻukʻ), Russian плева́ть (plevátʹ), Persian تف (tof), Sanskrit ष्ठीवति (ṣṭhī́vati).

Phrases

  • Belyando spew
  • spew alert
  • spew up

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.