spiel

[speel, shpeel]Informal.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR spiel ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a usually high-flown talk or speech, especially for the purpose of luring people to a movie, a sale, etc.; pitch.

verb (used without object)

to speak extravagantly.

RELATED WORDS

jabber, line, chatter, pitch, jive

Nearby words

Origin of spiel

1890–95; (noun) < German Spiel or Yiddish shpil play, game; (v.) < German spielen or Yiddish shpiln to play, gamble

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for spiel

When the crew finally reaches the tribe, they give them their spiel.
Meet the Germans Having Sex to Save the World|Marlow Stern|March 13, 2013|DAILY BEAST
He'll give you a spiel about his research and ask to measure your brain waves.
Sentiment, Inc.|Poul William Anderson
(from this slipping into more of a little girl manner) Oh, she gave me a spiel one day about living up to the men I come from.
Plays|Susan Glaspell
I wonder the guards don't refuse their spiel at my coming and going.
Secret Memoirs: The Story of Louise, Crown Princess|Henry W. Fischer

You made your spiel, and you t'rowed me out, and I let it go at dat.
Heart of the West|O. Henry
Say, spiel that part again 'bout Penelope with the kisses on her mouth, an' you can kid me till the cows come home.
The Mucker|Edgar Rice Burroughs

British Dictionary definitions for spiel

spiel

noun

a glib plausible style of talk, associated esp with salesmen

verb

(intr) to deliver a prepared spiel

(tr usually foll by off) to recite (a prepared oration)

Derived Formsspieler, noun

Word Origin for spiel

C19: from German Spiel play

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

Word Origin and History for spiel

spiel

"glib speech, pitch," 1896, probably from verb (1894) meaning "to speak in a glib manner," earlier "to play circus music" (1870), from German spielen "to play," from Old High German spilon (cognate with Old English spilian "to play"). The noun also perhaps from German Spiel "play, game."