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spick-and-span

[spik-uh n-span]
See more synonyms for spick-and-span on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. spotlessly clean and neat: a spick-and-span kitchen.
  2. perfectly new; fresh.
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adverb
  1. in a spick-and-span manner.
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Origin of spick-and-span

1570–80; short for spick-and-span-new, alliterative extension of span-new
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for spick-and-span

clean, fresh, hygienic, immaculate, neat, polished, pure, sanitary, shining, shipshape, spotless, spruce, tidy, unstained, untarnished, gleaming, cleaned, spic-and-span

Examples from the Web for spick-and-span

Historical Examples of spick-and-span

  • I doubt if Sir Francis had it all so spick-and-span—for in his day we were very nearly as far from lawn mowers as from turbines.

    Adventures and Enthusiasms

    E. V. Lucas

  • The spick-and-span occupants of the reception bureau evidently regarded him as Room Number So-and-so.

  • But give me the sububs and stucco, smart villas, and spick-and-span shops.

  • The captain looked suspiciously from the two grimy travellers to the spick-and-span Englishmen in golfing costume.

  • “I never realised before what a spick-and-span person you were,” she observed.

    Jacob's Ladder

    E. Phillips Oppenheim

British Dictionary definitions for spick-and-span

spick-and-span

spic-and-span

adjective
  1. extremely neat and clean
  2. new and fresh
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Word Origin for spick-and-span

C17: shortened from spick-and-span-new, from obsolete spick spike, nail + span-new
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