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View synonyms for spitting image

spitting image

noun

, Informal.


spitting image

noun

  1. informal.
    a person who bears a strong physical resemblance to another, esp to a relative Also calledspitspit and image
“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


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Word History and Origins

Origin of spitting image1

1925–30; from the phrase spit and image ( spit 1 ) by confusion of spit and with spittin'; compare earlier the very spit of the exact likeness of
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Word History and Origins

Origin of spitting image1

C19: modification of spit and image, from spit 1(as in the phrase the very spit of, the exact likeness of (someone))
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Idioms and Phrases

A precise resemblance, especially in closely related persons. For example, Dirk is the spitting image of his grandfather . This idiom alludes to the earlier use of the noun spit for “likeness,” in turn probably derived from an old proverb, “as like as one as if he had been spit out of his mouth” (c. 1400). The current idiom dates from about 1900.
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Example Sentences

It didn’t hurt that Youngkin, clad in a fleece vest most of the campaign, was able to posit himself as the spitting image of a genial suburban dad.

“People have told me that I look like him, act like him, that my kids are the spitting image of him,” she said.

His son is 11 now, and he is the spitting image of his father.

Then, all at once, I realized I was looking at the spitting image of myself.

Tiny, malformed, and bandy-legged, it was still the spitting image of him.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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

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