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spook
5 dictionary results for: spook
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
spook       [spook] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.Informal. a ghost; specter.
2.Slang. a ghostwriter.
3.Slang. an eccentric person.
4.Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. a black person.
5.Slang. an espionage agent; spy.
–verb (used with object)
6.to haunt; inhabit or appear in or to as a ghost or specter.
7.Informal. to frighten; scare.
–verb (used without object)
8.Informal. to become frightened or scared: The fish spooked at any disturbance in the pool.
[Origin: 1795–1805, Americanism; < D; c. G Spuk]

—Related forms
spook·er·y, noun
spookish, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
spook       (spōōk)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. Informal A ghost; a specter.
  2. Slang A secret agent; a spy.
  3. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a Black person.

v.   spooked, spook·ing, spooks Informal

v.   tr.
  1. To haunt.
  2. To startle and cause nervous activity in; frighten: The news spooked investors, and stock prices fell.

v.   intr.
To become frightened and nervous.


[Dutch, from Middle Dutch spooc.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
spook  (n.)
1801, from Du. spook, from M.Du. spooc "spook, ghost," from a common Gmc. source (cf. Ger. Spuk "ghost, apparition," M.L.G. spok "spook," Swed. spok "scarecrow, Norw. spjok "ghost, specter," Dan. spøg "joke"), of unknown origin. Possible outside connections include Lettish spigana "dragon, witch," spiganis "will o' the wisp," Lith. spingu, spingeti "to shine," O.Pruss. spanksti "spark." Meaning "undercover agent" is attested from 1942. The verb is first recorded 1867 in sense of "to walk or act like a ghost;" meaning "to unnerve" is from 1935. The derogatory racial sense of "black person" is attested from 1940s, perhaps from notion of dark skin being difficult to see at night. Black pilots trained at Tuskegee Institute during World War II called themselves the Spookwaffe. Spooky is from 1854.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
spook

noun
1. someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric [syn: creep] 
2. a mental representation of some haunting experience; "he looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters from his past" [syn: ghost] 

verb
1. frighten or scare, and often provoke into a violent action; "The noise spooked the horse" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Spook

Spook\, n. [D. spook; akin to G. spuk, Sw. sp["o]ke, Dan. sp["o]gelse a specter, sp["o]ge to play, sport, joke, sp["o]g a play, joke.]

1. A spirit; a ghost; an apparition; a hobgoblin. [Written also spuke.] --Ld. Lytton.

2. (Zo["o]l.) The chim[ae]ra.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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