Meaning & use
spick
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Meanings
adjectiveidiomold-fashioned
Neat and clean; found today only in the fixed phrase spick and span, meaning perfectly tidy.
Grammar: Never used alone; always part of spick and span, which can follow a verb like be, keep or look.
Patterns
- spick and span
She left the kitchen spick and span before the guests arrived.
The sailors kept the deck spick and span.
After the repairs, the whole house looked spick and span.
phrasefixed phraseinformal
As part of spick and span, describing something spotless, freshly cleaned and in perfect order.
Grammar: Used as a complement after be, keep, look or leave.
Patterns
- keep something spick and span
- leave something spick and span
Her uniform was spick and span for the inspection.
He kept the old car spick and span for forty years.
The students left the classroom spick and span.
Common combinations
- spick and span
- The lobby was spick and span by nine.
- keep spick and span
- They keep the garden spick and span.
- look spick and span
- The room looked spick and span after the cleaning.
- leave spick and span
- The cleaners left the office spick and span.
- spick-and-span kitchen
- A spick-and-span kitchen was her pride.
Synonyms and how they differ
- spotless
- Spotless is a current word for perfectly clean, while spick and span sounds older and more cheerful.
- immaculate
- Immaculate is more formal and suggests perfect condition, not only cleanliness.
- tidy
- Tidy is about order and arrangement rather than cleanliness itself.
- pristine
- Pristine means as clean as when new, often used for objects or nature.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: spick or spic? spick or speck?
spick vs spic
Spic is a deeply offensive ethnic slur and must not be confused with spick; avoid writing the word alone, and use only the full phrase spick and span.
spick vs speck
A speck is a tiny spot of dirt, nearly the opposite of the clean state spick and span suggests.
Practice
The cleaners worked all morning, and by noon the entire office was ____.
Choose one answer.
Spick and span is the fixed idiom meaning perfectly clean and tidy. The other options are not real idioms.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “spick”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.