spook
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
spook
- /spuːk/
- /spʊk/ US, dialectal
Rhymes with -uːk
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).
noun spooks
- A ghost or phantom. The building was haunted by a couple of spooks.
- A scare or fright. The big spider gave me a spook.
- An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst. 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?
- A black person. Some won't take spooks—hell, don't make no difference to me.
- A metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct. 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.
- A psychiatrist. Commonly, the surgeons view nonsurgeons with disdain. The most disdain is directed toward the “shrinks” or the “spooks,” as the psychiatrists are called.
- 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.
verb spooks · spooking · spooked
- 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.
- To become frightened (by something startling). The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.
- To haunt.
