Definitions

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

  • noun A sudden indulgence in or outburst of an activity.
  • noun A carefree, lively outing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Spruce; gay.
  • To go on a spree; carouse: often with an indefinite it: as, to spree it for a week.
  • noun A lively frolic; a prank.
  • noun A bout or season of drinking to intoxication; a fit of drunkenness.
  • noun Synonyms Revel, Debauch, etc. See carousal.

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

  • noun colloq. A merry frolic; especially, a drinking frolic; a carousal.
  • noun an incident in which one spends money freely; -- usually designating indiscreet or reckless spending on unneeded items.

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

  • noun A merry frolic; especially, a drinking frolic.
  • noun Uninhibited activity.

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

  • noun a brief indulgence of your impulses
  • verb engage without restraint in an activity and indulge, as when shopping

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps alteration of Scots spreath, spreagh, cattle stolen in a raid, cattle raid, from Scottish Gaelic sprèidh, cattle, from Middle Irish, ultimately from Latin praeda, booty; see ghend- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1804, from Irish spraoi ("fun, sport"), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse sprækr, sprakr ("lively, vigorous, sprightly"), from Proto-Germanic *sprakjaz, *sprakjan, *sprukan (“branch, sprout, splinter”), from Proto-Indo-European *(a)sp(h)arag-, *(a)sprāg- (“sprout”). Cognate with Icelandic sprækr ("sprightly"), Norwegian spræk ("cheerful, lively"), Swedish dialectal sprygg ("active, brisk"). More at spry.

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Examples

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  • River in East Germany between the Elbe and Oder rivers. South of Berlin it splits into a multitude of smaller network commonly referred to as the Spreewald, traditional home of the Wendish/Sorbian people.

    December 27, 2008