spitting image

American  

noun

Informal.

1. spit.

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spitting image British  

noun

1. Also called: spit.   spit and image.  informal a person who bears a strong physical resemblance to another, esp to a relative

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spitting image Idioms  

1. 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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Etymology

Origin of spitting image

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