sprat
/spɹæt/
sprat noun: any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
Noun
sprat (plural sprat or sprats)
- Any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
- Any of various similar fish of other genera.
- Anything petty or insignificant.
- A sixpence.
- The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90
Verb
sprat (third-person singular simple present sprats, present participle spratting, simple past and past participle spratted)
- To manure (land) with sprats (the fish).
- […] spratting the land. This treatment is supplemented by about half a ton of artificial manure, largely made up of a mixture of superphosphate and some nitrogenous manure.1923, The Agricultural Gazette and Modern Farming, volume 98, page 190
sprat meaning in Tamil, Indonesian and Persian
sprat in Tamil
- நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும், மீன் இனங்களில் ஒன்றாகும்
sprat in Indonesian
- any of various small marine fish in the genus Sprattus
- japuh
sprat in Persian
- any of various small marine fish in the genus Sprattus
- کیلکا kilkâ
Forms of sprat
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sprat |
| plural | sprats |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sprats |
| present participle | spratting |
| past participle | spratted |
| past | spratted |
Origin of sprat
From Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.
Words formed from sprat
- a sprat to catch a mackerel
- throw a sprat to catch a mackerel
- European sprat
- slender sprat
- spratlike
- spratter
Phrases with sprat
Words that rhyme with sprat
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- mat
- slat
- blat
- matt
- matte
- nat
- pat
- sat
- scat
- vat
- old hat
- phat
- plat
- prat
- rabat
- spat
- tat
- @
- acrobat
- anticat
- antifat
- antirat
- batt
- big cat
- Cheshire cat
- clat
- combat
- gat
- glatt
- gnat
- manat
- Montserrat
- plait
- scrat
- skat
- stat
- the fact that
- twat
- whereat
- begat
- Bratt
- BTO flat
- chowkat
- dassie rat
- dat
- despotat
- drat
- Flatt
Questions about sprat
- What does sprat mean?
- Sprat means any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
- What is sprat in Tamil?
- Sprat in Tamil is நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும், மீன் இனங்களில் ஒன்றாகும். See Sprat meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is sprat?
- Sprat can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sprat?
- Sprat is pronounced /spɹæt/.
- What is the plural of sprat?
- The plural of sprat is sprat.
Words near sprat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sprat (page history and authors); sprat (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sprat.wav.
Cite this entry: “sprat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sprat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.