spook
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: espionage
gambling
games
government
human-sciences
medicine
military
philosophy
politics
sciences
war
Etymology: Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).
Inflected forms:
form: spooks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: spooks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: spooking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: spooked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: spooked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A ghost or phantom.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: The building was haunted by a couple of spooks.
"I'll say what I think, no more and no less, and I won't be scared by you or your spooks into altering my opinions."
gloss: A hobgoblin.
pos: noun
gloss: A scare or fright.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: The big spider gave me a spook.
gloss: An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: 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?
The congressional study frets that Huawei’s and ZTE’s products could be used as Trojan horses by Chinese spooks.
The hard right is on the march in Europe. The Alternative for Germany, a party declared extremist by domestic spooks, scored a record result in a national election in February.
gloss: A black person.
pos: noun
tags: dated
ethnic
offensive
slang
slur
examples: Some won't take spooks—hell, don't make no difference to me.
"[…] Dryades Street and that whole uptown neighborhood is gonna be worth a fortune once the white people take it back from you spooks and develop it. […]"
gloss: A metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A psychiatrist.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
examples: Commonly, the surgeons view nonsurgeons with disdain. The most disdain is directed toward the “shrinks” or the “spooks,” as the psychiatrists are called.
gloss: A player who engages in hole carding by attempting to glimpse the dealer's hole card when the dealer checks under an ace or a 10 to see if a blackjack is present.
pos: noun
tags: slang
gloss: To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The hunters were spooked when the black cat crossed their path. The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.
As that was happening, an East Midlands train came through at 90mph. George [a Labrador] was spooked as the train went past him and ran backwards across the neighbouring slow lines and off towards the sidings.
gloss: To become frightened (by something startling).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.
gloss: To haunt.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Derived words: outspook
spookable
spookdom
spooker
spookery
spookfest
spookfish
spookhouse
spookiness
spookish
spookism
spookist
spookless
Spooklight
spookmaster
spookological
spookology
spook out
spookshow
spooksome
spookspeak
spooktacular
spooktastic
spooky
superspook
suspook
Translations: