2 ADJ Spiritual means relating to people's religious beliefs. □ The spiritual leader of Ireland's 3.7 million Catholics.
3 N‑COUNT A spiritual is a religious song of the type originally sung by black slaves in America.
spir|itu|al|ism /sp I r I tʃuəl I zəm/ N‑UNCOUNT Spiritualism is the belief that the spirits of people who are dead can communicate with people who are still alive. ● spir|itu|al|ist (spiritualists ) N‑COUNT □ He was a poet and an ardent spiritualist.
spit /sp I t/ (spits , spitting , spat ) In American English, the form spit is used as the past tense and past participle. 1 N‑UNCOUNT Spit is the watery liquid produced in your mouth. You usually use spit to refer to an amount of it that has been forced out of someone's mouth.
2 VERB If someone spits , they force an amount of liquid out of their mouth, often to show hatred or contempt. □ [V ] The gang thought of hitting him too, but decided just to spit. □ [V prep] They spat at me and taunted me. □ [V prep] She spit into the little tray of mascara and brushed it on her lashes.
3 VERB If you spit liquid or food somewhere, you force a small amount of it out of your mouth. □ [V n with out ] Spit out that gum and pay attention. □ [V n prep] He felt as if a serpent had spat venom into his eyes.
4 VERB [usu cont] If it is spitting , it is raining very lightly. [BRIT ] □ [V ] It will stop in a minute–it's only spitting. in AM, use sprinkle 5 N‑COUNT A spit is a long rod which is pushed through a piece of meat and hung over an open fire to cook the meat. □ She roasted the meat on a spit.
6 N‑COUNT A spit of land is a long, flat, narrow piece of land that sticks out into the sea.
7 PHRASE If one place is within spitting distance of another, they are very close to each other. [INFORMAL ] □ [+ of ] …a restaurant within spitting distance of the Tower of London.
8 PHRASE If you say that one person is the spitting image of another, you mean that they look very similar. [INFORMAL ] □ Nina looks the spitting image of her mother.
spite ◆◇◇ /spa I t/
1 PHRASE You use in spite of to introduce a fact which makes the rest of the statement you are making seem surprising. □ Their love of life comes in spite of, almost in defiance of, considerable hardship.
2 PHRASE If you do something in spite of yourself , you do it although you did not really intend to or expect to. □ The blunt comment made Richard laugh in spite of himself.
3 N‑UNCOUNT If you do something cruel out of spite , you do it because you want to hurt or upset someone. □ He thinks Dan has vandalised the car out of spite.
4 VERB [only to-inf] If you do something cruel to spite someone, you do it in order to hurt or upset them. □ [V n] You don't want to come because you want to spite me in front of my neighbours.
5 to cut off your nose to spite your face → see nose USAGE in spite of
Don’t use ‘in spite of ’ as a conjunction. Don’t say, for example, ‘
spite|ful /spa I tfʊl/ ADJ Someone who is spiteful does cruel things to hurt people they dislike. □ He could be spiteful. □ …a stream of spiteful telephone calls. ● spite|ful|ly ADV [ADV with v] □ We crept into our little sister's bedroom and spitefully defaced her pop posters.
spit|tle /sp I t ə l/ N‑UNCOUNT Spittle is the watery liquid which is produced in your mouth. [OLD-FASHIONED ] □ Spittle oozed down his jaw.
spiv /sp I v/ (spivs ) N‑COUNT A spiv is a man who does not have a regular job and who makes money by business deals which are usually illegal. [BRIT , INFORMAL ]
splash /splæ ʃ/ (splashes , splashing , splashed )
1 VERB If you splash about or splash around in water, you hit or disturb the water in a noisy way, causing some of it to fly up into the air. □ [V about/around ] A lot of people were in the water, swimming or simply splashing about. □ [V ] She could hear the voices of her friends as they splashed in a nearby rock pool. □ [V + into ] The gliders and their pilots splashed into the lake and had to be fished out.
2 VERB If you splash a liquid somewhere or if it splashes , it hits someone or something and scatters in a lot of small drops. □ [V n prep] He closed his eyes tight, and splashed the water on his face. □ [V prep/adv] A little wave, the first of many, splashed in my face. □ [V n] Coffee splashed the carpet. □ [V n + with ] Lorries rumbled past them, splashing them with filthy water from the potholes in the road.
3 N‑SING A splash is the sound made when something hits water or falls into it. □ There was a splash and something fell clumsily into the water.
4 N‑COUNT A splash of a liquid is a small quantity of it that falls on something or is added to something. □ Wallcoverings and floors should be able to withstand steam and splashes.
5 N‑COUNT A splash of colour is an area of a bright colour which contrasts strongly with the colours around it. □ [+ of ] Anne left the walls white, but added splashes of colour with the paintings.