spiel

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“
She's made me promise t' cut out d' tough-spiel, an' so I'm tryin' to Are you really, Spike Well--when she's around I do, Geoff And she doesn't like you to fight, eh Nope!

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A lengthy or extravagant speech or argument usually intended to persuade.
  2. intransitive and transitive verb To talk or say (something) at length or extravagantly.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • I ascertained that Cavallo didn't know nothing useful about the crimes, so I went right into my spiel -- use caution, check the door locks and so on, and he listened politely and said he had always taken care of himself and expected to keep on doing so. —  F ;SF; - vol 104 issue 04 - April 2003
  • I gave them the same spiel, and like the first ten, they were equally amenable to my terms. —  CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - FRANK ABAGNALE JR.
  • This is just a venting spiel, about the idiosyncrasies of dating and how to make it better. —  Bad Girl's Guide
  • They've changed their spiel, and some have changed their name. —  FJ's Blog
  • "Fat cats" sounded dated, but I had to admit the rest of his spiel wasn't too bad and it was delivered with some passion yet without hectoring.
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This word has been looked up 113 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. German, play, or Yiddish shpil, both from Middle High German spil, from Old High German.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also written speal, speel, speil. A shortened form of bonspiel (which see). Cf. German spiel, play.
 

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/spil/
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