Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Nautical, to sail steadily and rapidly, as before the wind.
- To cause to scud, as before the wind.
Wiktionary
- v. nautical To be driven steadily and swiftly, as before a strong wind; to be driven before the wind without any sail, or with only a part of the sails spread; to scud under bare poles.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. (Naut.) To be driven steadily and swiftly, as before a strong wind; to be driven before the wind without any sail, or with only a part of the sails spread; to scud under bare poles.
Etymologies
- Probably from spume foam. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Keep stirring the mixture frequently and mash the tomato and onions using a wooden spoom.”
“Down with the fore-sail too! we'll spoom before her.cf. also _The Lucky Chance_, I, i: 'I am no Starter.”
“[To spoom, or spoon, is to go right before the wind, without any sail.”
“On one hand, my Obnoxious Food Geek Self is curious to taste pizza-flavored spoom or blueberry Legos or cauliflower soup molded into John McCain†™ s face †"but I also wonder if it†™ s right and proper to treat food this way.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spoom’.
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spoom.
reesetee If it had wine in it, it wouldn't have frozen solid. Maybe it was a type of slushy. ;-) Feb 25, 2008
chained_bear Actually, in these books, they drink sherbet all the time. Which must be something other than the frozen confection we frequently enjoy with spoons nowadays. Feb 25, 2008
reesetee So I looked this up. Here's what I found:
1) To be driven steadily and swiftly, as before a strong wind; to be driven before the wind without any sail, or with only a part of the sails spread; to scud under bare poles.
2) A kind of sherbet made from fruit juice or wine, mixed after freezing with uncooked meringue.
I sure hope O'Brian's using it in the first sense. It could get rather messy otherwise. Feb 24, 2008
chained_bear "'When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale
My heaving wishes help to fill the sail
says Dryden, that prince of poets, and the dear knows we spoom in the most virtuous manner. I suggest we all go and blow into the mainsail...'" (102)
and...
"'Come, have a cup of coffee to keep your spirits up, Mowett; then we shall go on deck, where virtue spooms before the goddam gale, and our heaving wishes will help to fill the sail, ha, ha, ha! That is Dryden, you know.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal, 105 Feb 24, 2008