Definitions

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

  • noun A small implement having a broad, flat, flexible blade that is used to mix, spread, or lift material.
  • noun Chiefly British A tongue depressor.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A broad flat blade or strip of metal or wood, with unsharpened edges and a commonly rounded outer end (which may be spoon-shaped), and a handle: used for spreading, smoothing, scraping up, or stirring substances, comminuting powders, etc.
  • noun A genus of Anatinæ, having the bill much longer than the head or tarsus, twice as wide at the end as at the base, there broadly rounded and spoon-shaped, with narrow prominent nail and numerous protrusive lamellæ; the shoveler-ducks or souchets.

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

  • noun An implement shaped like a knife, flat, thin, and somewhat flexible, used for spreading paints, fine plasters, drugs in compounding prescriptions, etc. Cf. Palette knife, under palette.

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

  • noun A kitchen utensil consisting of a flat surface attached to a long handle, used for turning, lifting, or stirring food.
  • noun dated A palette knife.
  • noun chemistry A thin hand tool, often made of nickel, for handling chemicals or other materials, when weighing, etc.

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

  • noun a turner with a narrow flexible blade
  • noun a hand tool with a thin flexible blade used to mix or spread soft substances

Etymologies

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

[Latin, flat piece of wood, splint, diminutive of spatha, broadsword; see spathe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin spatula ("a flat piece"), the diminutive form of spatha ("broad or flat tool") + -ula ("-ule"). Compare spatha and spathe.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Nickname for the Roseate Spoonbill.

    June 22, 2011

  • Fun to say?

    July 8, 2011

  • Oh, it's so delightful! The mysterious consonants that pushed in to make this into "spatchala" always fascinated me as a young kid.

    July 8, 2011