cuspidor

American  

[kuhs-pi-dawr] / ˈkʌs pɪˌdɔr /

noun

1. a large bowl, often of metal, serving as a receptacle for spit, especially from chewing tobacco: in wide use during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

---

cuspidor British  

/ ˈkʌspɪˌdɔː /

noun

1. another word (esp US) for spittoon

---

Etymology

Origin of cuspidor

1770–80; < Portuguese: literally, spitter, equivalent to cusp ( ir ) to spit (≪ Latin conspuere to cover with spit; con- con- + spuere to spit ¹ ) + -idor < Latin -i-tōrium; see -i-, -tory ²

Example Sentences

Official Scorer Johnny Little, known as "the keeper of the cuspidor," cautions: "No licorice or other foreign matter mixed in."

From Time Magazine Archive

At a detective, who queried him at the hospital about the possibly private motive for the shooting, Mr. Garrett is said to have shied a small porcelain cuspidor.

From Time Magazine Archive

Dry agents testified in the trial, that they found the court's injunction reposing sedately in a cuspidor.

From Time Magazine Archive

In Paris, 30 smokers, each provided with a spittoon, cuspidor or bowl, met at the annual open-air smokers' tournament, established many records.

From Time Magazine Archive

The first man rapped his pipe empty on the edge of a cuspidor.

From Atlantic Narratives Modern Short Stories by Ashe, Elizabeth