spiflicate
English
editAlternative forms
edit- smifligate
- spefflicate (Cornish dialect)
- spifflicate
Etymology
editApparently made up to resemble a word of Latin origin.
Verb
editspiflicate (third-person singular simple present spiflicates, present participle spiflicating, simple past and past participle spiflicated)
- (transitive, obsolete) To confound, silence or dumbfound.
- (transitive, Provincial, obsolete) To beat severely.
- (transitive, slang, obsolete) To stifle, suffocate, kill.
- 1837, Richard Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends:
- So out with your whinger at once, and scrag Jane while I spiflicate Johnny
- (transitive, obsolete) To ruin, destroy.
- 1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase:
- It completely busts up and spifflicates the medical evidence
Related terms
editReferences
edit- William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “spiflicate”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume V, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- Eric Partridge (1984) Paul Beale, editor, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English […], 8th edition, New York: Macmillan