Link Centre Dictionary

spook

UK/spuːk/ US/spʊk/ fairly common informal slang us
noun (2) verb (1)

noun

1.
2.

a mental representation of some haunting experience

  • “he looked like he had seen a ghost”
  • “it aroused specters from his past”
Synonyms

verb

1.

frighten or scare, and often provoke into a violent action

  • “The noise spooked the horse”

Origin

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).

Phrases

  • spook out

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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.