spindrift
Syllables: spin·drift/ˈspɪndɹɪft/US/ˈspɪnˌdɹɪft/
spindrift noun: sea spray (clouds of water droplets) blown from the tops of waves by the wind and whipped along the surface of the sea.
Noun
spindrift (countable and uncountable, plural spindrifts)
- Sea spray (clouds of water droplets) blown from the tops of waves by the wind and whipped along the surface of the sea.
- There was no snow as yet up here at Dare; but wild tempests shaking the house to its foundations; and brief gleams of stormy sunlight lighting up the grey spindrift as it was whirled shorewards from the breaking seas; […]1878, William Black, “First Impressions”, in Macleod of Dare. […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 252
- The ocean waves are broken up by wind, ultimately producing the storm-wrack and spin-drift of the tempest-tossed sea.1900, John E[dward] Marr, “Production of Dominant Forms”, in The Scientific Study of Scenery, New York, N.Y.: New Amsterdam Book Co.; London: Methuen & Co., →OCLC, page 22
- Clouds of sand, snow, etc., whipped along the ground by the wind.
spindrift meaning in Vietnamese
spindrift in Vietnamese
- sea spray blown from the tops of waves by the wind and whipped along the surface of the sea
- bụi nước
Forms of spindrift
| plural | spindrifts |
|---|---|
| alternative form | speendrift |
| alternative form | spoondrift |
Origin of spindrift
Borrowed from Scots spindrift; further etymology uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests it is a variant of spoondrift (archaic), apparently due to the pronunciation of this word in southwestern Scotland, which is derived from spoon + drift (“mass of matter driven or forced onward together in a body, etc., especially by wind or water”); spoon is a variant of spoom (“to sail briskly with the wind astern, with or without sails hoisted”). However, this is doubted by the Scottish National Dictionary because spoondrift is attested later than spindrift and it seems unlikely that the Scots spelling would have superseded the English one, and because the early use of the Scots word in the form spenedrift by James Melville (1556–1614) is unlikely to have derived from spoondrift. The word was popularized in English from the late 19th century by its use in the novels of the Scottish-born author William Black (1841–1898): see, for example, the 1878 quotation.
Questions about spindrift
- What does spindrift mean?
- Spindrift means sea spray (clouds of water droplets) blown from the tops of waves by the wind and whipped along the surface of the sea.
- What is spindrift in Vietnamese?
- Spindrift in Vietnamese is bụi nước. See Spindrift meaning in Vietnamese.
- What part of speech is spindrift?
- Spindrift is a noun.
- How do you pronounce spindrift?
- Spindrift is pronounced /ˈspɪndɹɪft/ (UK).
- What is the plural of spindrift?
- The plural of spindrift is spindrifts.
Words near spindrift in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spindrift (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spindrift.wav.
Cite this entry: “spindrift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spindrift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.