Word.ws English Dictionary

spit the dummy

spit the dummy verb: to overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner.

Verb

spit the dummy (third-person singular simple present spits the dummy, present participle spitting the dummy, simple past and past participle spat the dummy or spit the dummy)

  1. (Australia, idiomatic, informal) To overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner.
    • He'll really spit the dummy when he hears that he's not going on that trip.

Synonyms of spit the dummy

Forms of spit the dummy

third-person singular presentspits the dummy
present participlespitting the dummy
past participlespat the dummy
pastspat the dummy
past participlespit the dummy
pastspit the dummy

Origin of spit the dummy

Referring to a baby having a tantrum and spitting out its dummy.

Questions about spit the dummy

What does spit the dummy mean?
Spit the dummy means to overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner.
What part of speech is spit the dummy?
Spit the dummy is a verb.
What is the past tense of spit the dummy?
The past tense of spit the dummy is spat the dummy.

Words near spit the dummy in the dictionary

  1. spit shines
  2. spit straight facts
  3. spit tacks
  4. spit take
  5. spit takes
  6. spit the dummy
  7. spit up
  8. spit valve
  9. spit venom
  10. spit wad
  11. spit wads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spit the dummy (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-spit the dummy.ogg.

Cite this entry: “spit the dummy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spit_the_dummy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.