Definitions

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

  • noun A slender, pointed rod on which meat is impaled for roasting.
  • noun A narrow point of land extending into a body of water.
  • transitive verb To impale on or as if on a spit.
  • noun Saliva, especially when expectorated; spittle.
  • noun The act of expectorating.
  • noun Something, such as the frothy secretion of spittle bugs, that resembles spit.
  • noun A brief, scattered rainfall or snowfall.
  • noun Informal The perfect likeness.
  • intransitive verb To eject from the mouth.
  • intransitive verb To eject as if from the mouth.
  • intransitive verb To emit suddenly and forcefully.
  • intransitive verb To eject matter from the mouth; expectorate.
  • intransitive verb To express contempt or animosity, especially by ejecting matter from the mouth.
  • intransitive verb To make a hissing or sputtering noise.
  • intransitive verb To rain or snow in light, scattered drops or flakes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To thrust a spit through; pierce, transfix, or impale with or as with a spit: as, to spit a loin of veal.
  • To string on a stick and hang up to dry, as herring in a smoke-house.
  • To roast anything on a spit; attend to a spit; use a spit.
  • noun A slender bar, sharply pointed at the end, to be thrust through meat which is to be roasted in front of the fire.
  • noun A sword.
  • noun The obelisk or dagger () used as a reference-mark.
  • noun A small point of land running into the sea, or a long narrow shoal extending from the shore into the sea.
  • noun In weaving, the spindle or wire which holds the cop, spool, or pirn in the shuttle.
  • To eject saliva from the mouth; expectorate.
  • To fall in scattered drops, as rain.
  • To make a noise as if spitting, like an angry cat.
  • To eject from the mouth; spew; especially, to eject as or with saliva: as, to spit blood.
  • To spade; plant by spading.
  • noun A spade; hence, the depth of a spade in the earth; a spading or spadeful.
  • noun What is ejected from the mouth; saliva; spume.
  • noun The act of spitting: as, a cat gives an angry spit.
  • noun In entomology:
  • noun The spume of certain inseets; a frothy, fleecy, or waxy substance secreted by various homopterous bugs from specialized pores scattered over the general surface of the body.
  • noun An insect which produces such spume: as, the cuckoo-spit, Ptyelus spumarius. See spittle-insect.
  • noun A light fall of rain or snow; especially, rain or snow falling in light gusts or scattered drops or flakes.
  • noun Image; likeness.

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

  • noun A long, slender, pointed rod, usually of iron, for holding meat while roasting.
  • noun A small point of land running into the sea, or a long, narrow shoal extending from the shore into the sea.
  • noun Prov. Eng. The depth to which a spade goes in digging; a spade; a spadeful.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To attend to a spit; to use a spit.
  • transitive verb To thrust a spit through; to fix upon a spit; hence, to thrust through or impale.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To spade; to dig.
  • transitive verb To eject from the mouth; to throw out, as saliva or other matter, from the mouth.
  • transitive verb To eject; to throw out; to belch.
  • noun The secretion formed by the glands of the mouth; spitle; saliva; sputum.
  • intransitive verb To throw out saliva from the mouth.
  • intransitive verb To rain or snow slightly, or with sprinkles.
  • intransitive verb to insult grossly; to treat with contempt.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English spitu.]

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

[Middle English, from spitten, to spit, from Old English spittan, ultimately of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English spitu

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English spittan, from Proto-Indo-European *spyēw, *spyū , of imitiative origin (see spew)

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