- feat. [The sponge used in cleansing
a combatant's face was chucked up in sign of submission.]
1899. Hyne, Further Adv. of Captain Kettle, vi. Don't throw up the sponge until someone else does it for you.
Sponge-wit, subs. phr. (old).—A
plagiarist.
Spoof, subs. (common).—Deception,
a swindle: also the spoof-game.
Also as verb. (or to play spoof).
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 10. Then 'e sets the gals a-screaming with a caper known as spoof, Playing monkey games on my old Uncle John.
Spook, subs. (colloquial).—A ghost.
Whence spookish (or spooky) =
ghostly.
Spoon, subs. (common).—1. A
simpleton: spec. an absurd whole-hearted
lover: also spooney; a
rank spoon = 'a prating shallow
fellow' (Vaux). Hence (2) =
calf-love: e.g., a case of
spoons. As verb. (to come the
spoon, or to be spoons on) =
to make love openly, innocently,
and ridiculously. Also spoony =
stupidly fond; spooniness =
foolish fondness (Grose, Vaux,
Bee).
1837. Barham, Ingolds. Leg., 'Witches' Frolic.' But you'll find very soon, if you aim at the moon, In a carriage like that, you're a bit of a spoon.
1838. Becket, Paradise Lost, 67. And I, at that time not suspicious . . . Suck'd in her gammon like a spoony.
d. 1845. Hood, Morning Meditations. A man that's fond precociously of stirring must be a spoon.
1847. Bronte, James Eyre, xv. In short I began the process of ruining myself in the received style, like any other spoonie.
1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxxiv. What the deuce can she find in that spooney of a Pitt Crawley?. . . The fellow has not pluck enough to say Bo to a goose.
1855. Tom Taylor, Still Waters, iii. 'A coolness, a self-possession . . . I never should have expected from—from ' 'From such a spoon—that's what you mean, isn't it?'
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, lx. Not actually in love . . . but only spoony.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, Prol. What a good-natured spoon that Dodd is!
1869. Macm. Mag., Nov., 65. Yes, Captain Waldron averred, he was a spooney; that was the right name for a man who let himself be played with as she had played with him.
1885. Hawley Smart, Struck Down xi. A girl would rather make her way out by herself than with a fellow she's spoons on.
1887. Henley, Culture in Slums. Was it not prime—I leave you all to guess How prime! to have a jude in love's distress Come spooning round.
1888. Harper's Mag., lxxviii. 749. I ought to remember, for I was spoons on you myself for a week or two.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 38. 'Twas an instance . . . Of the danger attending unlimited spoons.
Verb. (American).—1. To nestle; to lie close; and 2. (venery). = to copulate while lying spoon-fashion, i.e., the bowl of one spoon in the other's.
1888. Harper's Mag., lxxvii. 49. 'Now spoon me.' Sterling stretched himself out on the warm flag-stone, and the boy nestled up against him. Ibid. (1886), lxxiv. 781. Two persons in each bunk, the sleepers spooning together, packed like sardines.
3. (cricketers').—To hit with a 'slack and horizontal' bat, causing the ball to rise in the air.
Phrases.—To stick one's spoon in the wall = to die; see Hop the Twig; to fill the mouth with empty spoons = to go hungry (Ray); to take with a big (or little) spoon = to take in large (or small) quantities: see Silver Spoon, and Wooden Spoon.
