sprat
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a European sprat (Sprattus sprattus)
English
Etymology
From Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /spɹæt/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -æt
Noun
sprat (plural sprat or sprats)
- Any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
- Any of various similar fish of other genera.
- (by extension) Anything petty or insignificant.
- (UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.
- 1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90:
- The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.
Derived terms
- a sprat to catch a mackerel, throw a sprat to catch a mackerel
- European sprat (Sprattus sprattus)
- slender sprat (Spratelloides gracilis)
- spratlike
Related terms
Translations
any of various small marine fish in the genus Sprattus
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See also
References
- (sixpence): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
Verb
sprat (third-person singular simple present sprats, present participle spratting, simple past and past participle spratted)
- (transitive, historical) To manure (land) with sprats (the fish).
- 1923, The Agricultural Gazette and Modern Farming, volume 98, page 190:
- spratting the land. This treatment is supplemented by about half a ton of artificial manure, largely made up of a mixture of superphosphate and some nitrogenous manure.
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Noun
sprat m (plural sprats)
Further reading
- “sprat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Serbo-Croatian
Pronunciation
Noun
sprȁt m inan (Cyrillic spelling спра̏т)
Declension
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | sprat | spratovi |
| genitive | sprata | spratova |
| dative | spratu | spratovima |
| accusative | sprat | spratove |
| vocative | sprate | spratovi |
| locative | spratu | spratovima |
| instrumental | spratom | spratovima |
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:спрат.