spittingn.1
The action of piercing with, or fixing on, a spit. Also attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition of being open or not closed > making holes or becoming holed > [noun] > by boring, piercing, or perforating > with sharp-pointed instrument
stickingeOE
stabbingc1425
steeking1488
jobbinga1578
spitting1623
probing1665
impunction1712
spiking1775
skewering1794
jagging1815
pierce1820
eyelet holing1845
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > cooking > [noun] > roasting > spit-roasting > putting food on spit
broaching1611
spitting1623
1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII ii. iv. 180 This respite..enter'd me..with a spitting power, and made to tremble The region of my Breast. View more context for this quotation
1631 J. Mabbe tr. F. de Rojas Spanish Bawd xv. 164 Shee used such diligence..that shee drew water at the second spitting.
1648 H. Hexham Groot Woorden-boeck Aen't Spit-stekinge, a Spitting, or a Broaching of meate.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
spittingn.2
1.
a. The action of ejecting saliva from the mouth; expectoration.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > organs of excretion > action of slavering > [noun] > action of spitting
spattlingc1000
spitting13..
spoutingc1390
avoidancea1398
spetinga1400
spet1446
spettingc1450
excreationa1556
spawling1608
exspuition1650
exsputation1657
sputation1657
sputtering1699
spit1700
13.. K. Alis. 898 (Linc.) Hadde he biden ony þing, Abouȝt he hadde his spittyng.
a1340 R. Rolle Psalter xxi. 5 I am reproue of men, in spittynge, buffetynge, and pungynge with þe thornes.
c1430 Freemasonry (1840) 711 From spyttynge and snyftynge kepe the also.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. SSSviii His betynges & buffettynges.., wt spyttynges, bobbynges & other tormentes.
1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus Excreatio, a spittyng out with retchynge.
1616 B. Jonson Epicœne iv. i, in Wks. I. 565 The spitting, the coughing, the laughter, the neesing. View more context for this quotation
1648 R. Sanderson Serm. II. 235 Clamours and outcries, railing, and spitting, and buffeting.
1733 G. Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. ix. 212 The Spitting or Salivation, so common in Nervous Distempers.
1786 J. Hunter Treat. Venereal Dis. vi. i. 311 He rubbed in..mercurial ointment, and had a slight spitting.
1808 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 19 506 I looked..for a return of his consumptive symptoms after the spitting had ceased.
1872 C. Darwin Expression Emotions Man & Animals xi. 260 Spitting seems an almost universal sign of contempt or disgust.
b. Const. of (blood, fire, etc.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > organs of excretion > action of slavering > [noun] > action of spitting > of blood, fire, etc.
spitting1565
1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus at Excreatio It is bruysed..against spittyng of bludde.
a1640 P. Massinger & J. Fletcher Very Woman iii. v. 149 in P. Massinger 3 New Playes (1655) Here will be spitting of fire a both sides presently.
1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique (at cited word) When this Spitting of Blood comes from the Stomach.
1769 W. Buchan Domest. Med. ii. 407 Spitting of blood is generally preceded by a sense of weight.
1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxii. 261 We are surprised to find that cases of spitting of blood are not much more frequent.
2. Saliva ejected from the mouth; spittle.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > organs of excretion > excretions > slaver > [noun] > spittle
spattlec897
spoldOE
spattlingc1000
speche?c1225
spita1300
spittinga1300
spotec1350
spittle1481
spettlea1500
salivation1601
spawlings1614
spawl1647
expectoration1650
snivel1698
slabber1718
outspitting1870
a1300 Cursor Mundi 25489 Iesus þat wald..Þi suete face..With Iuus spitting file.
c1340 R. Rolle Pricke of Conscience 655 Of þe comes mykel foul thyng, Als fen, and uryn and spyttyng.
1483 Cath. Angl. 355/2 To cast Spyttynge, desputare, exscreare.
1639 S. Du Verger tr. J.-P. Camus Admirable Events 210 All Berards brags were as so many spittings vomited up against heaven.
1691 A. Gavin Observ. Journy to Naples 114 So that the Precious Blood..is spilt upon the Ground, amongst the Filth and Spittings of the People.
1701 G. Stanhope tr. St. Anselm in tr. St. Augustine Pious Breathings 333 That adorable face..was then defiled..with the spittings of unhallowed lips.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. II. v. v. 310 In descending, he received a spitting (crachat) on the head, and some others, on his clothes.
3. 1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 729/2 Silver,..when..it is fused,..absorbs a considerable quantity of oxygen, which it expels in the act of solidification with a peculiar sound, technically known as spitting.1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 71/1 The presence of even very little base metal in the silver prevents this ‘spitting’.
a. Sputtering; spec. of molten silver.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going or coming out > letting or sending out > [noun] > emission > explosive emission of particles
spitting1611
sputter1837
sputtering1837
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > precious metal > [noun] > silver > sputtering of molten silver
spitting1611
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Petillement,..the spitting of a candle.
b. A slight sprinkle or shower of rain.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > rain > [noun] > a or the fall of rain > shower > slight
spitting1707
smur1830
skit1847
spit1849
skiff1895
whisp1923
1707 in R. M. F. Watson Closeburn (1901) App. 274 All..shall be reckoned but as spittings before the great shower.
1869– in dial. glossaries.
c. technical. (See quot. 1879.)
ΚΠ
1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) I. 271/1 In the needle-gun..the ‘spitting’ of fire at the breech is inconveniently great.
Compounds
C1. attributive.
a. In sense of ‘facilitating or inducing spitting’, as spitting-drop, spitting-pill.
ΚΠ
1630 P. Massinger Picture sig. K3v Hee's acquainted With the greene water and the spitting pill Familiar to him.
1692 W. Winstanley Poor Robin Advt. sig. C8v Spitting-Drops, that any one may safely take.
b. Miscellaneous, as spitting distance, spitting exordium, spitting range, spitting sickness.
ΚΠ
1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 31 This counterpoyson of the spitting sickenesse.
1600 W. Cornwallis Ess. I. xii. sig. H4v Hee [sc. Montaigne]..forceth you not to attention with a hem, & a spitting Exordium.
a1758 J. Edwards Hist. Redempt. (1782) ii. ii. 155 He did not think it too much..to become the laughing-stock and spitting-stock of the vilest of men.
1895 H. Maxwell Duke of Brit. xix. 280 You had him almost within spitting range.
1959 P. Bull I know Face iv. 70 One of the reasons I had closed with the Chatham offer was that it was within spitting distance of London.
1965 Listener 3 June 841/3 All this the spectators can see at spitting distance.
1977 Western Mail (Cardiff) 5 Mar. 6/1 More than doubled pre-tax profits has taken the Midland Bank to within spitting distance of its two giant High Street rivals—National Westminster and Barclays.
C2. In sense ‘for spitting in or on’.
spitting-box n.
ΚΠ
1688 G. Miege Great French Dict. ii. sig. Rrr4v/1 A spitting Box, un Crachoir.
1794 S. Parr Let. to Maltby in Wks. (1828) VIII. 336 Is there a smoking room, an arm-chair, a spitting-box, a wax-candle?
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. xiv. 202 A large tin spitting-box [was] fixed to his chest by a strap over the shoulders.
spitting-cup n.
ΚΠ
1684 W. Hedges Diary 7 July (1887) I. 149 A Beetle Box, Plate, Arrack Bowl, Spitting Cupp, and Silver handle for a Fan.
spitting-dish n.
ΚΠ
1706 J. Stevens New Spanish Dict. i Escupidero, a spitting Dish.
spitting-kettle n.
ΚΠ
1815 ‘J. Mathers’ Hist. Mr. John Decastro & Brother Bat III. 339 Let's have..pipes and tobacco, some sawdust and a spitting kettle.
spitting-mug n.
ΚΠ
1895 Army & Navy Price List 15 Sept. 1316/1 Spitting Mugs.
spitting-pan n.
ΚΠ
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. xiv. 202 There were spitting-pans placed in different parts of the decks for the use of the men.
spitting place n.
ΚΠ
1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 39 Come, pray, stand out of my spitting Place.
spitting pot n.
ΚΠ
1727 A. Pope et al. Περι Βαθους: Art of Sinking 92 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. Paint, Diet-Drinks, Spitting-Pots, and all other Necessaries of Life.
1776 Pennsylvania Evening Post 27 Apr. 212/1 Blue and white artichoke cups and spitting pots.
1836 J. M. Gully tr. F. Magendie Formulary (ed. 2) 127 The water used in washing the spitting-pots.
spitting sheet n.
ΚΠ
1662 S. Pepys Diary 21 Nov. (1970) III. 262 To bed-this night having first put up a spitting-sheet, which I find very convenient.
1684 A. Hall Will (Somerset Ho.) One paire of spitting sheetes now used upon my bed.
1707 J. Stevens tr. F. de Quevedo Comical Wks. (1709) 164 They left me, looking all over like an old Man's Spitting-sheet.
spitting vase n.
ΚΠ
1831 J. Jekyll Let. 24 Nov. in Corr. (1894) ix. 286 The cigar-smokers of Dublin use spitting vases in the shape of mitres.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
spittingn.3
Now dialect.
The action of digging, or of ploughing to a spade-depth; a small trench made with a spade.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > earth-moving, etc. > [noun] > digging or excavating
delfeOE
gravinga1340
pioning1590
spitting1594
spading1647
effossion1657
earthwork1796
exfodiation1823
disentombment1859
earth moving1866
delve1869
dig1887
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > [noun] > digging > digging to spade depth
spitting1594
spading1647
spittling1807
spudding1885
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > ploughing > [noun] > light ploughing
spitting1594
stirree1733
skirting1796
hen-scratching1844
1594 Min. Archd. Colch. (MS.) f. 25 b Frauncis Fromont, the sonne, of Lytleburye, dyd work all daye vppon St. James daye at spitting of saffron ground in Walden.
1648 H. Hexham Groot Woorden-boeck Een spadinge, ofte spittinge, a Spading, or a Spitting.
1764 J. Randall Semi-Virgilian Husbandry Introd. p. lv This action of the Sun is most considerable in Ridge work, especially in the Double Spitting, in the destruction of Weeds.
1892 in Eng. Dial. Dict.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
spittingadj.
That spits, in various (chiefly transferred) senses of the verb.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going or coming out > [adjective] > suddenly or violently > in drops or particles
spitting1567
spattering1576
fuzzing1775
spurting1821
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > rain > [adjective] > light or slight
mizzling1439
spitting1567
mizzly1853
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > snow > [adjective] > falling (of snow)
snitteringc1400
spitting1567
the world > life > the body > organs of excretion > action of slavering > [adjective] > spitting
sputtering1598
spawling1603
sputativea1639
spitting1688
spitty1742
expectorative1863
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going or coming out > letting or sending out > [adjective] > emitting > emitting particles explosively
sputteringa1657
spitting1901
1567 T. Drant tr. Horace Pistles in tr. Horace Arte of Poetrie sig. Eij A linnine slop in spitting snowe.
1688 G. Miege Great French Dict. i. sig. N2v/3 Cracheur, a spitting (or spawling) man.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxvii. 211 The spitting snow-dust raised by the wind.
1888 W. B. Churchward ‘Blackbirding’ in S. Pacific 81 I saw the spitting flashes and heard the bangs.
1901 ‘Linesman’ Words by Eyewitness (1902) xii. 252 There is a roar from the razor-back, an angry spitting reply from the donga.
1910 W. B. Yeats Green Helmet 33 With my spitting-cat heads, my frenzied moon-bred band.
a1953 D. Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954) 48 And in Willy Nilly the Postman's dark and sizzling damp tea-coated misty pygmy kitchen where the spittingcat kettles throb and hop on the range.
Compounds
C1. In specific names of reptiles, etc.
spitting asp n.
ΚΠ
1658 J. Rowland Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 632 The Ptyas or spitting [1608 Hist. Serpents: spetting] Asp resembleth an Ash colour.
spitting click-beetle n.
ΚΠ
1855 J. C. Morton Cycl. Agric. I. 47 A[griotes] sputator.—The pasture or spitting click-beetle is much smaller than A. obscurus.
spitting gecko n.
ΚΠ
1802 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. III. i. 279 Spitting Gecko. Lacerta Sputator.
spitting snake n.
ΚΠ
1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 197/1 One [genus], Sepedon hæmachates,..or ‘Ring-Neck Snake,’..shares with the cobra a third Dutch name, that of ‘spuw slang’ (Spitting Snake).
spitting cobra n. the African black-necked cobra, Naja nigricollis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Elapidae or Najidae > hemachatus or spitting cobra
spuugslang1789
rinkhals1793
spitting cobra1910
spitting cobra1931
1931 R. L. Ditmars Snakes of World xiii. 167 The Spitting Cobra or Black-necked Cobra..comes close to being the most dangerous snake of Africa.
1976 G. Durrell Stationary Ark ii. 28 This [word] was expectorated with a venom that would have done credit to a spitting cobra.
C2.
spitting image n. alteration of spitten image (see spitten adj.). Cf. splitting image at splitting adj. 5.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > similarity > [noun] > image of a person or thing
print1340
imagec1384
similitude?a1425
picturec1475
similitudeness1547
portrait1567
idol1590
model1594
self-imagea1672
duplicate1701
moral1751
ditto1776
fetch1787
double1798
fetch-like1841
splitting image1880
spitting image1901
spit1929
split-image1950
clone1977
1901 A. H. Rice Mrs. Wiggs of Cabbage Patch vii. 94 He's jes' like his pa—the very spittin' image of him!
1917 A. W. Blue Quay Head Tryst 70 He's the spittin image o' a thrawn fechter.
1929 H. Walpole Hans Frost iii. v. 370 In another twenty years..she would be her mother's spitting image.
1938 N. Coward Operette i. vii. 58 Believe it or not, she was the spitting image of Princess Ena!
1960 H. Pinter Caretaker ii. 33 Your spitting image he was.
a1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 243 Far from adapting himself to his new position he is adapting his new position to himself (No. 10, as I saw the other day, is the spitting image of his little house in Hampstead).
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.11623
n.2a1300
n.31594
adj.1567