Splayd

British

/ spleɪd /

noun

an implement combining the functions of knife, fork, and spoon

"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

Etymology

Origin of Splayd

from _sp ( _oon ) + ( _bl ) _ade

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The urban myth about MacArthur and the Japanese possibly arose because the first person to create a hybrid fork-spoon for the mass market was another McArthur, an Australian named Bill McArthur, of Potts Point, New South Wales, who in 1943 launched his patented Splayd — derived from the verb “to splay” — after seeing a magazine photo of women awkwardly balancing knives, forks, and plates on their laps at a party.

From Salon

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