Link Centre Dictionary

spoon

UK/spuːn/ US/ˈspʊu̯n/ fairly common informal slang us
noun (3) verb (2)

noun

1.

a piece of cutlery with a shallow bowl-shaped container and a handle; used to stir or serve or take up food

2.

as much as a spoon will hold

  • “he added two spoons of sugar”
Synonyms
3.

verb

1.

scoop up or take up with a spoon

  • “spoon the sauce over the roast”
2.

snuggle and lie in a position where one person faces the back of the others

Synonyms

Origin

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).

Phrases

  • absinthe spoon
  • apostle spoon
  • baffing spoon
  • bar spoon
  • big spoon
  • born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
  • caddy spoon
  • caviar spoon
  • deflagrating spoon
  • little spoon
  • spoon off
  • spoon out

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Entails

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.