spree

See also Spree

English

Etymology

1804, from Irish spraoi (“fun, sport”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse sprækr, sprakr (“lively, vigorous, sprightly”), from Proto-Germanic *sprakjaz, *sprakjan, *sprukan (“branch, sprout, splinter”), from Proto-Indo-European *(a)sp(h)arag-, *(a)sprāg- (“sprout”). Cognate with Icelandic sprækr (“sprightly”), Norwegian spræk (“cheerful, lively”), Swedish dialectal sprygg (“active, brisk”). More at spry.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /spɹiː/
• Rhymes: -iː

Noun

spree (plural sprees)

1. A merry frolic; especially, a drinking frolic.
2. Uninhibited activity.

Usage notes

Often preceded by the name of a certain activity to indicate a period of doing that activity whole-heartedly and continuously, e.g. shopping spree.

Synonyms

• carousal

Derived terms

• killing spree
• shooting spree
• shopping spree

Translations

a merry frolic

• Estonian: pidu (et), jooming (et)
• Finnish: juominki

• Italian: baldoria (it) f
• Scottish Gaelic: (drinking) daorach (gd) f

uninhibited activity

• Estonian: hoog (et)
• French: frénésie (fr) f

• Russian: активность (ru) (aktivnostʹ) f

Anagrams

• esper
• peers, Peers
• perse, per se