spout

«spout» in Mova's school dictionary: a short tube or lip on a teapot, kettle or jug that… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a spout, spouts); verb (spout, spouts, spouted, spouting)

meaning for a pupil

1) A spout is a short tube or lip on a teapot, kettle or jug that liquid is poured out of. tree →

2) A spout is a strong stream of liquid, such as a whale's spout of water and air. tree →

3) To spout is to come or send out liquid in a strong stream. tree →

4) (informal) To spout is to talk a lot, often saying silly or boring things: «He spouts nonsense». tree →

5) «Up the spout» (UK, informal) means ruined or wasted. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life, the spout is the part of the teapot or watering can you pour from. In nature lessons, a whale's spout is the cloud of breath it blows out of its blowhole. In stories, a fountain spouts water. Informally, people complain that someone «spouts rubbish». Phrases: «water spout», «spout nonsense», «up the spout».

examples

• Tea poured from the spout of the teapot. tree →
• The watering can has a long spout. tree →
• We saw a whale's spout far out at sea. tree →
• Water spouted from the broken pipe. tree →
• The fountain spouts water high into the air. tree →
• He's always spouting nonsense about aliens. tree →
• The rain made all our plans go up the spout. tree →
• The fountains spouted forth the most delicious wine, and whoever bought a penny loaf at the baker's received six large buns, full of raisins, as a present. tree →

note

Noun is countable; verb is regular (spouted). «Spout nonsense» is informal and a bit rude about someone. «Waterspout» (one word) is also a tornado over water.

In the corpora

• Whales breathe through a blowhole on top of the head, and the spout is warm wet breath forming a cloud of mist.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «spout» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.