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- Dictionaryspick and span/spɪk(ə)ndˈspan/
adjective
- 1. neat, clean, and well looked after: "my little house is spick and span"
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Spick-and-span is an adjective that means fresh, brand-new or spotlessly clean. Learn its synonyms, examples, word history and related articles from Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Spick and span means very clean and tidy, especially of a place. Learn how to use this phrase, its pronunciation, and its synonyms from Cambridge Dictionary.
Spick-and-span definition: spotlessly clean and neat. See examples of SPICK-AND-SPAN used in a sentence.
Spick and span means very clean and tidy, or new and fresh. It is an adjective or adverb derived from spick-and-span-new, a shortened form of spike and new.
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From spick-and-span-new (literally “new as a recently made spike and chip of wood”) (1570s), from spick (“nail”, variant of spike) + Middle English span-new (“very new”) (from circa 1300 until 1800s), from Old Norse span-nyr, from spann (“chip”) (cognate to Old English spón, English spoon, due to spoons once being made of wood) + nyr (“new”) (cogna...
spick-and-span (comparative more spick-and-span, superlative most spick-and-span) 1. (idiomatic) Clean, spotless. 1.1. Synonyms: see Thesaurus:clean 1.2. I mopped up the kitchen floor so it was spick-and-span. 1.1. 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie,[…], London:...
Michael Quinion (January 24, 2004) “Spick and span”, in World Wide Words.Anatoly Liberman (2018 May 23) “Spick and span: a suspicious hybrid”, in OUPblog“spick-and-span”, in The Century Dictionary[…], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.Learn the origin, pronunciation and meaning of the idiomatic adjective spick-and-span, meaning clean or spotless. Find synonyms, translations and references for this term.
Spick-and-span is an adjective that means new or fresh, or an alternative form of spick-and-span-new. It comes from the Dutch spiksplinter nieuw, meaning "spike-splinter new", and refers to freshly made wood chips.
Definitions of spick-and-span. adjective. completely neat and clean. synonyms: immaculate, speckless, spic, spic-and-span, spick, spotless. clean. free from dirt or impurities; or having clean habits. adjective. conspicuously new. “a spick-and-span novelty”.
