spoon

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Affected uses of words like ain't and constructions like he don't in the speech of educated users do not constitute valid evidence for the editors of the Unabridged to say about ain't that it "occurs in the speech of educated users," any more than they would be justified in including a word like pioner because Olivier said it when performing in Hamlet: both are acting.

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Definitions (50)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (10)

  1. noun A utensil consisting of a small, shallow bowl on a handle, used in preparing, serving, or eating food.
  2. noun Something similar to this utensil or its bowl, as:
  3. noun A shiny, curved, metallic fishing lure.
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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples

  • Affected uses of words like ain't and constructions like he don't in the speech of educated users do not constitute valid evidence for the editors of the Unabridged to say about ain't that it "occurs in the speech of educated users," any more than they would be justified in including a word like pioner because Olivier said it when performing in Hamlet: both are acting. —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 2
  • Obediently Thorby reached for his spoon, then noticed that it was a sandwich instead of a bowl of stew. —  Citizen Of The Galaxy
  • He should never have trusted Riolla's assassin to watch his back. —  Song of Time
  • Evidently only a few drops in the bottom of the bowl of the spoon were appropriate, which was just as well, since she was evidently required to sit straight -- spined and look directly ahead and not at what she was doing, as she raised the nearly empty spoon to her lips to sip-not drink-the soup. —  The Gates Of Sleep
  • Joe picked up his coffee spoon and put it in his handkerchief pocket" I'm pretty sure he thought that the spoon was his pair of reading glasses. —  The 6th Target
 

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Spoon has been looked up 447 times, favorited once, listed 60 times, and commented on 4 times.

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

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

mug ·  cup ·  utensil ·  fork ·  knife ·  saucer ·  tray ·  napkin ·  pan ·  bucket ·  jar ·  kettle
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 (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English spōn, chip of wood.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English spoon, spone, spon, span, from Anglo-Saxon spōn, a splinter of wood, chip, = OFries. spōn, span = Dutch spaen, spaan = Middle Low German spōn, Low German spoon = Middle High German spān, German span, a thin piece of wood, shaving, chip, = Icelandic spānn, spōnn = Swedish spån = Danish spaan, a chip; root uncertain. Cf. span-new, spick-and-span-new.
  2. A variant or corruption of spoom.
  3. Usually assumed to be a particular use of spoon; but rather a back-formation from spoony, orig. in allusion to the use of a spoon in feeding an infant.
  4. from spoon, n.
 

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/spun/
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