Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Nautical, a showery sprinkling of sea-water or fine spray swept from the tops of the waves by the violence of the wind in a tempest, and driven along before it, covering the surface of the sea; scud. Sometimes called spindrift.

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

  • noun Spray blown from the tops of waves during a gale at sea; also, snow driven in the wind at sea; -- written also spindrift.

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

  • noun Alternative form of spindrift.

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

  • noun spray blown up from the surface of the sea

Etymologies

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

[Obsolete spoon, to run before the wind + drift.]

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Examples

  • As the gale increased, the tops of the waves were shorn off by the fierce blasts, clouding the whole atmosphere with frozen spray, or what the sailors call "spoondrift," rendering it impossible to see any object a few rods distant.

    Tales and Sketches Part 3, from Volume V., the Works of Whittier: Tales and Sketches John Greenleaf Whittier 1849

  • As the gale increased, the tops of the waves were shorn off by the fierce blasts, clouding the whole atmosphere with frozen spray, or what the sailors call "spoondrift," rendering it impossible to see any object a few rods distant.

    Tales and Sketches, Complete Volume V., the Works of Whittier: Tales and Sketches John Greenleaf Whittier 1849

  • As the gale increased, the tops of the waves were shorn off by the fierce blasts, clouding the whole atmosphere with frozen spray, or what the sailors call "spoondrift," rendering it impossible to see any object a few rods distant.

    The Complete Works of Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1849

  • A curtain of spoondrift hung above that awful reef and almost shut from the view of those ashore the open sea and what swam on it.

    Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper James A. Cooper

  • There was no rain -- just a wind which tore across the waste of waters within view of her station, scattering their crests in foam and spoondrift, and rolling them in huger and still huger breakers on the strand.

    Sheila of Big Wreck Cove A Story of Cape Cod James A. Cooper 1917

  • She was all of a shiver forward, the spoondrift thick on her flanks,

    From a Cornish Window A New Edition Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

  • She was all of a shiver forward, the spoondrift thick on her flanks,

    A Nonsense Anthology Carolyn Wells 1902

  • The sun shone bright in the clear sky above and the wind howled as it lashed the combing sea, driving the spoondrift like mist through the air and covering the vast ocean in a sea of foam -- a scene grand and magnificent to behold!

    Recollections of a naval life : including the cruises of the Confederate States steamers, "Sumter" and "Alabama", 1900

  • The oil slick helped only a little; every few moments a wave with spoondrift flying from it would smash across the deck, volleying tons of water between rails, with a sound like thunder.

    Blow The Man Down A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 Holman Day 1900

  • And the schooner in a world of flying spray, white scud, and driving spoondrift, her cordage humming, her forefoot churning, the flag at her peak straining stiff in the gale, came up into the narrow passage of the

    Moran of the Lady Letty Frank Norris 1886

Comments

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  • (n). Spray blown from the tops of the waves during a gale at sea; snow driven by the wind at sea.

    cf. spindrift

    December 31, 2008

  • The sea, growing calm, will soon lift

    The veil of tempest-strewn gift,

    That wind-woven cloth

    Of glistening froth

    That rimed her grim face in spoondrift.

    May 16, 2014

  • *applauds*

    May 18, 2014

  • You'll give me a big head. Please continue.

    May 19, 2014