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spinney. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
spinney, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
spinney in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
spinney you have here. The definition of the word
spinney will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
spinney, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English spenné, from Middle French espinoye (“thorny thicket”), espinaye, from Latin spīnētum (“thorny thicket”), from Latin spīna (“thorn”).
Noun
spinney (plural spinneys)
- (UK) A small copse or wood, especially one planted as a shelter for game birds.
1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:“H'm !" he said, "so, so — it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […] ”
1960, P G Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:I've never hunted myself, but I understand that half the battle is being able to make noises like some jungle animal with dyspepsia, and I believe that Aunt Dahlia in her prime could lift fellow-members of the Quorn and Pytchley out of their saddles with a single yip, though separated from them by two ploughed fields and a spinney.
1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 16:Freda, the German undermatron, once discovered him sunbathing nude in the spinney.
See also
Etymology 2
Shortening
Noun
spinney (plural spinneys)
- Clipping of spinnaker.
References
Anagrams
Manx
Noun
spinney m (genitive singular , plural )
- elasticity
Synonyms
Antonyms