spoilsport
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of spoilsport
First recorded in 1815–25; from phrase spoil the sport
Explanation
A spoilsport is a person who ruins other people's fun. You know: the girl shushing everyone at a sleepover party, the kid who refuses to play when it comes their turn to be "it." Back before it meant organized athletics, sport meant games or joking. Instead of making fun of someone, you'd be "making sport" of them. So someone who spoils or wrecks the fun or sport of others is a spoilsport. Calling someone a spoilsport, though, is often just a way to pressure them to do something everyone knows is wrong.
Vocabulary lists containing spoilsport
The Parker Inheritance
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The Old Willis Place
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Inkheart
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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.
And rains play a spoilsport here as well.
From BBC • Sep. 8, 2025
For days, northern California newspapers kicked around fierce, spoilsport claims.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 8, 2024
Never mind the spoilsport who defines college as “those magical seven years between high school and your first warehouse job.”
From Washington Post • Apr. 19, 2023
Just as investors were starting to get more confident about a soft landing for the world's largest economy, with strong jobs growth and cooling inflation, China is playing spoilsport.
From Reuters • Aug. 15, 2022
He deserved it for being such a spoilsport.
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
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.
