spout Meaning, Definition & Usage

Spout transitive verb

Etymology

Cf. Sw. sputa, spruta, to spout, D. spuit a spout, spuiten to spout, and E. spurt, sprit, v., sprout, sputter; or perhaps akin to E. spit to eject from the mouth.

Wordforms

imperfect & past participle Spouted; present participle & verbal noun Spouting

Definitions

1. To throw out forcibly and abudantly, as liquids through an office or a pipe; to eject in a jet; as, an elephant spouts water from his trunk.

   Who kept Jonas in the fish's maw Till he was spouted up at Ninivee? Chaucer.

   Next on his belly floats the mighty whale . . . He spouts the tide. Creech.

2. To utter magniloquently; to recite in an oratorical or pompous manner.

   Pray, spout some French, son. Beau. & Fl.

3. To pawn; to pledge; as, spout a watch. Cant

Spout intransitive verb

Definitions

1. To issue with with violence, or in a jet, as a liquid through a narrow orifice, or from a spout; as, water spouts from a hole; blood spouts from an artery.

   All the glittering hill Is bright with spouting rills. Thomson.

2. To eject water or liquid in a jet.
3. To utter a speech, especially in a pompous manner.

Spout noun

Etymology

Cf. Sw. spruta a squirt, a syringe. See Spout, v. t.

Definitions

1. That through which anything spouts; a discharging lip, pipe, or orifice; a tube, pipe, or conductor of any kind through which a liquid is poured, or by which it is conveyed in a stream from one place to another; as, the spout of a teapot; a spout for conducting water from the roof of a building. Addison. "A conduit with three issuing spouts." Shak.

   In whales . . . an ejection thereof [water] is contrived by a fistula, or spout, at the head. Sir T. Browne.

   From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide. Pope.

2. A trough for conducting grain, flour, etc., into a receptacle.
3. A discharge or jet of water or other liquid, esp. when rising in a column; also, a waterspout.