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spook

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Spook

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *spōk. Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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spook (plural spooks)

  1. (informal) A ghost or phantom.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ghost
    The building was haunted by a couple of spooks.
  2. (informal) A scare or fright.
    The big spider gave me a spook.
  3. (espionage, slang) An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst.
    • 2009 July 24, “Spies like them”, in BBC News Magazine:
      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 October 13, “Huawei and ZTE: Put on hold”, in The Economist‎[2], archived from the original on 19 December 2017:
      The congressional study frets that Huawei’s and ZTE’s products could be used as Trojan horses by Chinese spooks.
    • 2025 September 23, “Six books to read to understand Europe’s hard right”, in The Economist‎[3], →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 September 2025:
      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.
  4. (slang, dated, offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
    • 1976, Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver, spoken by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro):
      Some won't take spooks—hell, don't make no difference to me.
    • 2002 February, Don Spears, Playing for Keeps‎[4], Los Angeles: Milligan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 179:
      " […] 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. […] "
  5. (philosophy) A metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct.
    • 1845, Max Stirner, translated by Steven T. Byington, Der Einzige und sein Eigentum; republished as The Ego and His Own, Dover, 2005:
      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.
  6. (US, slang, medicine) A psychiatrist.
    • 1975, Robert O. Pasnau, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, page 124:
      Commonly, the surgeons view nonsurgeons with disdain. The most disdain is directed toward the “shrinks” or the “spooks,” as the psychiatrists are called.
  7. (slang, gambling) 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.

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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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.
    • 2022 August 10, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 963, page 71:
      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.
  2. (intransitive) To become frightened (by something startling).
    The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.
  3. (transitive) To haunt.

Translations

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Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ McDavid, Raven Ioor Jr. (1953), “13. Some Social Differences in Pronunciation”, in William A. Kretzschmar, Jr., editor, Dialects in culture: essays in general dialectology‎[1], University, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, published 1979, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 116.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Etymology

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From Dutch spook, from Middle Dutch spoke, spooc, from Proto-Germanic *spōk.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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spook (plural spoke, diminutive spokie)

  1. ghost, phantom

Descendants

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  • → Northern Ndebele: isipoko
  • → Xhosa: isiporho
  • → Zulu: isipoki

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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

Noun

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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. spectre, horror, terror
    het spook van de oorlog ― the horror of war
  3. an imaginary horror, conceptual nightmare
  4. an annoying and intolerable woman
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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spook

  1. inflection of spoken:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

Middle English

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Noun

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spook

  1. alternative form of spoke
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