spout

English

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /spaʊt/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /spʌʊt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊt

Noun

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 stream of liquid.
   • 2010, James Fleming, Cold Blood, page 160:

     A spout of blood flew from his mouth, spattering Smichov's linen trousers.

3. The mixture of air and water thrown up from the blowhole of a whale.
4. (Australia) A hollow stump formed when a tree branch breaks off.

Coordinate terms

• (tube through which liquid is discharged): nozzle

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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.
   • c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Coxcomb”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iv:

     Pray, spout some French, son.

5. (transitive, slang, dated) To pawn; to pledge.

   to spout a watch

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• POTUS, Toups, USPTO, pouts, putos, stoup, tupos, upsot