spunk

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“
They like her spunk, her style and the pride she takes in being both Super Mom and Super Gov.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Informal Spirit; pluck.
  2. noun Punk, touchwood, or other tinder.
  3. noun Vulgar Slang Ejaculated semen.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • She had spunk--replied that if I did she would hand the paper over to the police. —  AdventureTales#1
  • Show your spunk, and let them see that you will fight. —  Henry Ossian Flipper, The Colored Cadet at West Point
  • Notwithstanding primary mission's patently suicidal odds, pushing thermonuke's built-in Red Button with own finger had never figured into plans Chewed over what had learned about Kazimirov's psyche thus far; concluded hint of spunk might be appropriate reaction at this point. —  AnalogSFF,September2008
  • She reminded him of Kelly when she was this young: full of spunk, and never giving up. —  Eric Nylund - HALO 4 - Ghosts of Onyx (v1.0)
  • But he had a spark of creativity and spunk, and despite the stuffy butler persona he had adopted, she liked him. —  Eric Nylund - HALO 4 - Ghosts of Onyx (v1.0)
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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 (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Scottish Gaelic spong, tinder, from Latin spongia, sponge; see sponge.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also sponk; from Irish Gaelic sponc, sponge, spongy wood, touchwood, tinder, from Latin spongia, a sponge, from Greek σπογγιά, σπόγγος, a sponge: see sponge.
  2. from spunk, n.
 

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/spəŋk/
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