spook

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”); compare German Spuk (“ghost, apparition”), Middle Low German spok (“spook”), Swedish spok (“scarecrow”), Norwegian spjok (“ghost, specter”)

Pronunciation

  • enPR: spo͞ok, IPA(key): /spuːk/
  • Rhymes: -uːk

Noun

spook (plural spooks)

  1. A spirit returning to haunt a place.
    The visit to the old cemetery brought scary visions of spooks and ghosts.
  2. A ghost or an apparition.
    The building was haunted by a couple of spooks.
  3. A hobgoblin.
  4. (espionage) A spy.
    • 2009, "Spies like them", BBC News Magazine (online), 24 July 2009:
      From Ian Fleming to John Le Carre - authors have long been fascinated by the world of espionage. But, asks the BBC’s Gordon Corera, what do real life spooks make of fictional spies?
    • 2012, The Economist, Oct 13th 2012, Huawei and ZTE: Put on hold
      The congressional study frets that Huawei’s and ZTE’s products could be used as Trojan horses by Chinese spooks.
  5. A scare or fright.
    The big spider gave me a spook.
  6. (dated, pejorative) A black person.
  7. (philosophy) A metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct.
    He who is infatuated with Man leaves persons out of account so far as that infatuation extends, and floats in an ideal, sacred interest. Man, you see, is not a person, but an ideal, a spook. — Max Stirner

Synonyms

  • See also Thesaurus:ghost

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Verb

spook (third-person singular simple present spooks, present participle spooking, simple past and past participle spooked)

  1. (transitive) To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling).
    The hunters were spooked when the black cat crossed their path. The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.
  2. (intransitive) To become frightened (by something startling).
    The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.
  3. (transitive) To haunt.

Translations

Derived terms

See also

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch spoke, spooc, from spoke, spoocke, spoicke (“wizardry, witchcraft”), from Proto-Germanic *spōk. Further etymology unclear. Compare Middle Low German spôk; Low German spôk; Middle High German Spuch; modern High German Spuk.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /spoːk/
  • audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: spook
  • Rhymes: -oːk

Noun

Een spook zoals dat vaak in een kinderboek getekend wordt.
A ghost such as is often drawn in a children's book.

spook n (plural spoken, diminutive spookje n)

  1. phantom, ghost
    Geloof je in spoken? ― Do you believe in ghosts?
  2. horror, terror
    het spook van de oorlog ― the horror of war
  3. an annoying and intolerable woman

Synonyms

Verb

spook

  1. first-person singular present indicative of spoken
  2. imperative of spoken

Middle English

Noun

spook

  1. Alternative form of spoke
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