Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To send out or force out in large amounts.
  • intransitive verb To vomit or otherwise cast out (matter) through the mouth.
  • intransitive verb To flow or gush forth.
  • intransitive verb To vomit.
  • noun Something spewed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To exude grease or become dull on the surface after being finished a short time: said of leather.
  • To discharge the contents of the stomach; vomit; puke.
  • In gunnery, to run at the mouth: said of a gun which bends at the chase, or whose muzzle droops, from too quick firing.
  • To vomit; puke up or out; eject from or as if from the stomach.
  • To eject as if by retching or heaving; send or cast forth from within; drive by internal force or effort: often used figuratively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To eject from the stomach; to vomit.
  • transitive verb To cast forth with abhorrence or disgust; to eject.
  • intransitive verb To vomit.
  • intransitive verb To eject seed, as wet land swollen with frost.
  • noun That which is vomited; vomit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb to eject forcibly and in a stream
  • verb slang to vomit
  • verb slang to ejaculate
  • verb slang to laugh unexpectedly while drinking, causing drink to exit the nose
  • noun slang vomit or sick
  • noun slang ejaculate

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb eject or send out in large quantities, also metaphorical
  • verb expel or eject (saliva or phlegm or sputum) from the mouth
  • verb eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English spewen, from Old English spīwan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English spīwan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwanan; cognate to the German speien ("to spew, spit, vomit"). Cognate with Albanian shpif ("to disgust, slander").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word spew.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • It is a most terrible bore

    to haemorrhage, spewing up gore,

    and, bubbling for breath,

    be blood-drowned to death.

    Je ne voudrais pas être mort.

    You find the limerick inapposite? Care for a cutely-adapted Adonic?

    After he spewed up

    he was unconscious

    till about tea-time,

    when he woke-up, then

    vomited once more

    (blood and fish-smelling

    purplish matter).

    - Peter Reading, C, 1984

    July 4, 2008