spick-and-span

[ spik-uhn-span ]
See synonyms for spick-and-span on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. spotlessly clean and neat: a spick-and-span kitchen.

  2. perfectly new; fresh.

adverb
  1. in a spick-and-span manner.

Origin of spick-and-span

1
1570–80; short for spick-and-span-new, alliterative extension of span-new

Words 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.

  • The spick-and-span occupants of the reception bureau evidently regarded him as Room Number So-and-so.

  • spick-and-span, he might have stepped out of a glass case, and this was his invariable appearance.

    The Pagan's Cup | Fergus Hume
  • Captain Jerry thought of the spick-and-span days of his wife, dead these twenty years, and sighed again.

    Cap'n Eri | Joseph Crosby Lincoln
  • He 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

spick-and-span

spic-and-span

/ (ˈspɪkənˈspæn) /


adjective
  1. extremely neat and clean

  2. new and fresh

Origin of spick-and-span

1
C17: shortened from spick-and-span-new, from obsolete spick spike, nail + span-new

Collins 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

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.