sprat
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /spɹæt/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -æt
Noun
editsprat (plural sprat or sprats)
- Any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
- Any of various similar fish of other genera.
- (by extension) Anything petty or insignificant.
- (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
edit- a sprat to catch a mackerel, throw a sprat to catch a mackerel
- European sprat (Sprattus sprattus)
- slender sprat (Spratelloides gracilis)
- spratlike
Related terms
editTranslations
editany of various small marine fish in the genus Sprattus
|
See also
editReferences
edit- (sixpence): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
Verb
editsprat (third-person singular simple present sprats, present participle spratting, simple past and past participle spratted)
- (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
editFrench
editPronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Noun
editsprat m (plural sprats)
Further reading
edit- “sprat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Serbo-Croatian
editPronunciation
editNoun
editsprȁt m (Cyrillic spelling спра̏т)
Declension
editDeclension of sprat
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | sprat | spratovi |
genitive | sprata | spratova |
dative | spratu | spratovima |
accusative | sprat | spratove |
vocative | sprate | spratovi |
locative | spratu | spratovima |
instrumental | spratom | spratovima |
Quotations
edit- For quotations using this term, see Citations:спрат.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/æt
- Rhymes:English/æt/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English indeclinable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- British English
- English slang
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with historical senses
- en:Herrings
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Serbo-Croatian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Serbo-Croatian lemmas
- Serbo-Croatian nouns
- Serbo-Croatian masculine nouns
- sh:Buildings