Wiktionary

spout

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English spouten, from Middle Dutch spoiten, spouten (> Dutch spuiten (“to spout”)), from Old Dutch *spūten, *spīuten, *spīwetten, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwattjan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwatjaną. Compare Swedish spruta (“squirt, syringe”). See also spit, spew.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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spout (plural spouts)

  1. A tube or lip through which liquid or steam is poured or discharged.
     
    I dropped my china teapot, and its spout broke.
  2. A waterspout (“channel through which water is discharged, especially from the gutters of a roof”).
  3. A stream or discharge of liquid, typically with some degree of force.
    • 2010, James Fleming, Cold Blood, page 160:
      A spout of blood flew from his mouth, spattering Smichov's linen trousers.
  4. A stream of water that falls from higher to lower; a (typically thin) waterfall.
    • 1805, Robert Forsyth, The Beauties of Scotland: Containing a Clear and Full Account of the Agriculture, Commerce, Mines, and Manufactures; of the Population, Cities, Towns, Villages, &c. of Each County ..., page 388:
      […] the river rushes over the Auchinlilie Lin or Spout, a tremendous chataract[sic]; after which it proceeds in a more quiet course, and is navigable to the village of Carron Shore.
    • 1839, Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, Prize-essays and Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, page 434:
      The Spout of Garnock is a wild and romantic waterfall upon that stream in the moors of Kilbirnie parish. The rock here is also porphyry. The porphyry upon the east side of the fall is much rent, and has fallen forward […]
    • 1895, Robert Louis Stevenson, An Inland Voyage: Travels with a Donkey [in the Cévennes], page 219:
      […] a streamlet made a little spout over some stones to serve me for a water-tap.
    • 2015 April 1, Jos Simon, The Rough Guide to Yorkshire, Rough Guides UK, →ISBN, page 245:
      […] you can follow a footpath from the fine Victorian Mallyan Spout Hotel to the national park's most famous waterfalls – the 80ft-high Mallyan Spout. When you get to the beck, turn left, and the waterfall is a couple of hundred yards along the bank; it can be wet underfoot […]
  5. A similar stream or fall of earth, rock, etc.
    • 1883, Stevenson, The Silverado Squatters, 234:
      The great spout of broken mineral, which had damned the canyon up.
    • 1883, Stevenson, Treasure Island, xv:
      From the side of the hill [...] a spout of gravel was dislodged.'
  6. A waterspout (“whirlwind or tornado that forms over water”).
    • 2020 [1570], John Dee, The Mathematicall Praeface to Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara, →ISBN, page 69:
      He ought to haue expert coniecture of Stormes, Tempestes, and Spoutes: and such lyke Meteorologicall effectes, daungerous on Sea.
  7. The mixture of air and water thrown up from the blowhole of a whale.
  8. (Australia) A hollow stump formed when a tree branch breaks off.

Coordinate terms

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  • (tube through which liquid is discharged): nozzle

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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spout (third-person singular simple present spouts, present participle spouting, simple past and past participle spouted)

  1. (intransitive) To gush forth in a jet or stream
    Water spouts from a hole.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To eject water or liquid in a jet.
    The whale spouted.
    • 1697, Thomas Creech, The Whale:
      The mighty whale […] spouts the tide.
  3. (intransitive) To speak tediously or pompously.
  4. (transitive) To utter magniloquently; to recite in an oratorical or pompous manner.
  5. (transitive, slang, dated) To pawn; to pledge.
    to spout a watch

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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