adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- spoonily adverb
- spooniness noun
Etymology
Origin of spoony
First recorded in 1805–15; spoon (in the archaic sense “shallow person, simpleton, fool”) + -y 1
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.
Foolish people may have been called spoony because, like the bowl of a spoon, they are shallow and lack depth.
From The Guardian • Aug. 19, 2019
Made us die with a story she told us of a fellow she was spoony on.
From Mike Fletcher A Novel by Moore, George (George Augustus)
Nordica charming vocally, but dramatically there is too much of the Becky Sharp about her, and she is merely in a plot with Martha to let in the rich and spoony Juggins called Faust.
From Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 98 June 7, 1890 by Various
"Yes, yes, the craythur's doin' somethin' in the spoony line," said Kisseck.
From She's All the World to Me by Caine, Hall, Sir
Dibdin was off the boards altogether, and favour was divided between the London popular comic song and the sentimental—no longer with any flavour of salt about it, but the sentimental spoony and sickly.
From The English in the West Indies or, The Bow of Ulysses by Froude, James Anthony
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.
