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Spick and span. World English Historical Dictionary

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Spick and span. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1919, rev. 2025. Spick and span a., sb. and adv. Also spick-and-span (occas. spic). [Shortening of next. See also SPECK AND SPAN.]

1   A.  adj. 1. = next.

2 1665.  Pepys, Diary, 15 Nov. My Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes.

3 1731.  Swift, On Death Dr. Swift, xxv. His way of writing now is past;… I keep no antiquated stuff; But spick and span I have enough.

4 1793.  Cowper, Lett., Wks. 1836, VII. 214. I have built one summer-house already, with the boards of my old study, and am building another spick and span, as they say.

5 1809.  European Mag., LV. 21. The great number of spick and span articles that have been received into our catalogue.

6 1849.  H. Mayo, Pop. Superst. (1851), 51. Fresh from the mint, and spic and span.

7 1877.  Spurgeon, Serm., XXIII. 442. Their shifting gospel changes about every ten years, and comes out spick and span as a new theology.

8   2.  Particularly neat, trim or smart; suggestive of something quite new or unaffected by wear:

9   a.  Of persons in respect of dress.

10 1846.  Thackeray, Crit. Rev., Wks. 1886, XXIII. 159. Benvenuto, spick and span in his very best clothes.

11 1863.  W. W. Story, Roba di R., I. iv. 64. The shopkeepers … looking spick-and-span, as if they had just come out of a bandbox.

12 1886.  ‘Maxwell Gray,’ Silence Dean Maitland, I. i. 8–9. A dog-cart, drawn by a high-stepping chesnut, and driven by a spick-and-span groom.

13   b.  Of things.

14 1857.  Dufferin, Lett. High Lat. (ed. 2), 87. You must not suppose … that the … land-slip of Thingvalla took place quite in the spick and span manner the section might lead you to imagine.

15 1882.  Mrs. Riddell, Daisies & Butterc., I. 121. This spick and span old house.

16 1888.  W. E. Norris, Rogue, xxxi. A spick-and-span victoria, with a lady seated in it.

17   B.  sb. That which is quite new or particularly trim and smart.

18 1758.  H. Walpole, Lett. to H. S. Conway, 21 July. I repeat what has been printed in every newspaper of the week, and then finish with one paragraph of spick and span.

19 1888.  B. W. Richardson, Son of Star, III. iii. 41. A Jewish legion of the spick and span of Jewish youth.

20   C.  adv. In a spick and span manner.

21 1815.  Lamb, Lett. to Manning, in Final Mem., x. 99. Mary reserves a portion of your silk … to make up spick and span into a bran-new gown.

22 1821.  Blackw. Mag., IX. 134. Caparison’d all spick and span.

23   Hence Spick-and-spanness. (In recent use.)

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