spick-and-span
Clean, spotlessClean, spotless.
Meaning
1 senses(idiomatic)Clean, spotless.
I mopped up the kitchen floor so it was spick-and-span.
blitzblank, picobello
completely neat and clean
Translations
1 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
From spick-and-span-new (literally “new as a recently made spike and chip of wood”) (1570sFrom spick-and-span-new (literally “new as a recently made spike and chip of wood”) (1570s), from spick (“nail”, variant of spike) + Middle English span-new (“very new”) (from circa 1300 until 1800s), from Old Norse span-nyr, from spann (“chip”) (cognate to Old English spón, English spoon, due to spoons once being made of wood) + nyr (“new”) (cognate to Old English nīewe, English new). Imitation of Dutch spiksplinternieuw (literally “spike-splinter new”), for a freshly built ship. Observe that fresh woodchips are firm and light (if from light wood), but decay and darken rapidly, hence the origin of the term.
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Forms
more spick-and-span, most spick-and-span| Comparative | more spick-and-span Lesson |
|---|---|
| Superlative | most spick-and-span Lesson |
regular
Synonyms
20 synonyms- completely neat and clean:immaculatespecklessspic-and-spanspicspickspotless
- conspicuously new:brand-newbran-newspic-and-span
Word family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Superlatives — Because it has a superlative form