spell out


verb(tr, adverb)
  1. to make clear, distinct, or explicit; clarify in detail: let me spell out the implications

  2. to read laboriously or with difficulty, working out each word letter by letter

  1. to discern by study; puzzle out

Words Nearby spell out

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use spell out in a sentence

  • It was on them that I began to spell out those signs which to the learned reveal a few faint traces of the Mighty Riddle.

    Marguerite | Anatole France
  • I am drinking the bitter cup of expiation; but as I drink it I painfully spell out this sentence: Expiation is not annihilation.

    Honorine | Honore de Balzac
  • Peter was made to spell out the first sentence two or three times over, for Heidi wished him to get it correct and fluent.

    Heidi | Johanna Spyri
  • She would take it away and spell out for herself those things in the marked book that had marked the soul of the man she loved.

    The Open Question | Elizabeth Robins
  • Then six slabs were placed in a row to spell out the sacred formula, “Om mani padme hum.”

Other Idioms and Phrases with spell out

spell out

Make plain, clarify, as in We asked her to spell out her objectives. [c. 1940]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.