sprat

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English

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a European sprat (Sprattus sprattus)
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Etymology

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From Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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sprat (plural sprat or sprats)

  1. Any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
  2. Any of various similar fish of other genera.
  3. (by extension) Anything petty or insignificant.
  4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.
    • 1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90:
      The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  • (sixpence): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Verb

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sprat (third-person singular simple present sprats, present participle spratting, simple past and past participle spratted)

  1. (transitive, historical) To manure (land) with sprats (the fish).
    • 1923, The Agricultural Gazette and Modern Farming, volume 98, page 190:
      [] spratting the land. This treatment is supplemented by about half a ton of artificial manure, largely made up of a mixture of superphosphate and some nitrogenous manure.

Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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sprat m (plural sprats)

  1. sprat

Further reading

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Serbo-Croatian

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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sprȁt m (Cyrillic spelling спра̏т)

  1. floor, story/storey (level)

Declension

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Quotations

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