spigot

[spig-uht]

noun

1. a small peg or plug for stopping the vent of a cask.

2. a peg or plug for stopping the passage of liquid in a faucet or cock.

3. a faucet or cock for controlling the flow of liquid from a pipe or the like.

4. the end of a pipe that enters the enlarged end of another pipe to form a joint.

spigot

/ ˈspɪɡət /

noun

1. a stopper for the vent hole of a cask

2. a tap, usually of wood, fitted to a cask

3. a US name for tap 2

4. a short cylindrical projection on one component designed to fit into a hole on another, esp the male part of a joint ( spigot and socket joint ) between two pipes

Word History and Origins

Origin of spigot¹

1350–1400; Middle English spigot, perhaps < Old French *espigot < Old Provençal espig ( a ) (< Latin spīca ear of grain; spica ) + Old French -ot diminutive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of spigot¹

C14: probably from Old Provençal espiga a head of grain, from Latin spīca a point

Example Sentences

Analysts are scrounging for any signal about the economy’s trajectory this month because the government shutdown has turned off the spigot of official government data.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

State investigators, the lawsuit alleges, found that the grass was brown, weeds and dirt covered markers and water spigots were inoperable.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

You don’t turn the funding on and off like a spigot.

Read more on Salon

“CHSRA relied on the false hope of an unending spigot of Federal taxpayer dollars,” the Federal Railroad Administration’s acting administrator Drew Feeley wrote.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Kang said that, politically speaking, having a Republican-controlled state Senate was useful for the former governor because it meant “he got to control the spigot of changes coming out of Albany.”

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Related Words

• nozzle 
• valve