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.

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cuspidor British  

/ ˈkʌspɪˌdɔː /

noun

1. another word (esp US) for spittoon

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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; -i-, -tory ²

Example Sentences

Just about everybody on the public payroll pitched in, from the municipal cuspidor cleaners to the foreman of vacuum cleaners at the county courthouse.

From Time Magazine Archive

I criticize, however, the picture you ran of him sitting at his desk, next to a large brass cuspidor.

From Time Magazine Archive

Alney Chaffee made a lunge for it but it escaped him, with a resounding clank fell into a large brass cuspidor.

From Time Magazine Archive

A long table, two incredibly battered desks, a telephone booth and a chipped enamel cuspidor make up its office equipment.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was at this point a sudden scraping of a chair, the clatter of an overturned cuspidor and a stout, elderly man at the rear of the room jumped to his feet.

From Still Jim by Morrow, Honoré