[spit] 
verb, spit or spat, spit⋅ting, noun | 1. | to eject saliva from the mouth; expectorate. |
| 2. | to express hatred, contempt, etc., by or as if by ejecting saliva from the mouth. |
| 3. | to sputter: grease spitting on the fire. |
| 4. | to fall in scattered drops or flakes, as rain or snow. |
| 5. | to eject from the mouth: The children were spitting watermelon seeds over the fence. |
| 6. | to throw out or emit like saliva: The kettle spits boiling water over the stove. |
| 7. | to set a flame to. |
| 8. | saliva, esp. when ejected. |
| 9. | the act of spitting. |
| 10. | Entomology. spittle. |
| 11. | a light fall of rain or snow. |
| 12. | spit up, to vomit; throw up: The wounded soldier spat up blood. If you jostle the baby, she'll spit up. |
| 13. | spit and image. Also, spitting image, spit 'n' image. Informal. exact likeness; counterpart: Hunched over his desk, pen in hand, he was the spit and image of his father at work. |
| spitting image n. A perfect likeness or counterpart. [Probably from alteration of spitten, dialectal past participle of spit, the close resemblance of one person to another being likened in folk sayings to the former person having been spat out of the latter's mouth; see spit1.] |
spitting image
A precise resemblance, especially in closely related persons. For example, Dirk is the spitting image of his grandfather. This idiom alludes to the earlier use of the noun spit for "likeness," in turn probably derived from an old proverb, "as like as one as if he had been spit out of his mouth" (c. 1400). The current idiom dates from about 1900.