spick-and-span
spotlessly clean and neat: a spick-and-span kitchen.
perfectly new; fresh.
in a spick-and-span manner.
Origin of spick-and-span
1Words Nearby spick-and-span
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use spick-and-span in a sentence
I doubt if Sir Francis had it all so spick-and-span—for in his day we were very nearly as far from lawn mowers as from turbines.
Adventures and Enthusiasms | E. V. LucasThe spick-and-span occupants of the reception bureau evidently regarded him as Room Number So-and-so.
The Terms of Surrender | Louis Tracyspick-and-span, he might have stepped out of a glass case, and this was his invariable appearance.
The Pagan's Cup | Fergus HumeCaptain Jerry thought of the spick-and-span days of his wife, dead these twenty years, and sighed again.
Cap'n Eri | Joseph Crosby LincolnHe had recognized, despite disguising superficialities of garb and manner, Bertha's once spick-and-span butler.
Port O' Gold | Louis John Stellman
British Dictionary definitions for spick-and-span
spic-and-span
/ (ˈspɪkənˈspæn) /
extremely neat and clean
new and fresh
Origin of spick-and-span
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with spick-and-span
Neat and clean, as in When Ruth has finished cleaning, the whole house is spick and span. This term combines two nouns that are now obsolete, spick, “a nail” or “spike,” and span, “a wooden chip.” In the 1500s a sailing ship was considered spick and span when every spike and chip was brand-new. The transfer to the current sense took place in the mid-1800s.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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