spoondrift
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of spoondrift
1760–70; spoon, variant of obsolete spoom (of a ship) to run or scud before the wind + drift
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 oil slick helped only a little; every few moments a wave with spoondrift flying from it would smash across the deck, volleying tons of water between rails, with a sound like thunder.
From Blow The Man Down A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 by Day, Holman
The spoondrift began to fly so that you could not see the moon, and the wind was enough to choke you if you faced it.
From The Chequers Being the Natural History of a Public-House, Set Forth in a Loafer's Diary by Runciman, James
She dodged occasionally to protect her eyes from the spoondrift which slatted so sharply across the deck and 156 into the cockpit.
From Wyn's Camping Days or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club by Marlowe, Amy Bell
It was impossible to face the scud and spoondrift from the furious sea; but to leeward he caught a glimpse of a marsh flooded with salt water, its reedy vegetation beaten flat by the storm.
From Into the Primitive by Bennett, Robert Ames
It tears the foaming crests off half a dozen waves, and sends them swirling down to leeward in shivering sheets of snowy spoondrift.
From Harper's Round Table, June 25, 1895 by Various
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.