Definitions

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

  • noun A faucet.
  • noun A wooden faucet placed in the bunghole of a cask.
  • noun The male end of a segment of pipe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small peg or plug designed to be driven into a gimlet-hole in a cask through which, when open, the contained liquor is drawn off; hence, by extension, any plug fitting into a faucet used for drawing off liquor.

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

  • noun A pin or peg used to stop the vent in a cask; also, the plug of a faucet or cock.
  • noun a joint for uniting pipes, formed by the insertion of the end of one pipe, or pipe fitting, into a socket at the end of another.

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

  • noun A pin or peg used to stop the vent in a cask
  • noun The plug of a faucet or cock.
  • noun A faucet. (Appalachian)

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

  • noun a regulator for controlling the flow of a liquid from a reservoir
  • noun a plug for a bunghole in a cask

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, perhaps from Old French *espigot, diminutive of Old Provençal espiga, ear of grain, from Latin spīca.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • Growing up, I always heard this pronounced as "spicket." I hate that.

    February 21, 2007

  • Hmm. Me too, but I liked it. :-)

    February 21, 2007

  • See this map -- spigot is currently winning the popularity contest against spicket.

    April 11, 2008