spatula
noun
- flexible, wide blade, used to smear, mix, or scrape material, including foods, drugs, plaster, and paint
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈspætjʊlə/ / /ˈspæt͡ʃʊlə/ / /ˈspæt͡ʃələ/
noun
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin spatula (“a flat piece”), the diminutive form of spatha (“broad or flat tool”), from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “a broad wood or metal blade”). Doublet of spauld; compare spatha and spathe.
- A kitchen utensil consisting of a flat surface attached to a long handle, used for turning, lifting, or stirring food.
- A kitchen utensil consisting of a flexible surface attached to a long handle, used for scraping the sides of bowls.
- A palette knife.
- A thin hand tool, often made of nickel, for handling chemicals or other materials, when weighing, etc.
- A tongue depressor.
- A croupier's tool for turning up cards in a casino.
“The croupier delicately faced her other two cards with the tip of his spatula. A four! She had lost!”
- A sclerotized, T-shaped plate in the prothorax of larvae of flies belonging to family Cecidomyiidae, the gall midges.
“The third instars are similar to other members of the genus except for a three-pronged spatula (typically two-pronged) and five lateral papillae (typically four) and with a nonbristled first instar.”
verb
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin spatula (“a flat piece”), the diminutive form of spatha (“broad or flat tool”), from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “a broad wood or metal blade”). Doublet of spauld; compare spatha and spathe.
- To lift with or as if with a spatula.
“A book on Pastels referes [sic] to a rough Modeling paste to be spatulaed over cotton duck.”
“So if you get road-pizzaed, should you have to pay in order to get yourself spatulaed off of the street?”
- To strike with a spatula.
“Or if you're a Ranma Character. I mean, they've been kicked/punched/thrown/hammered/spatulaed into the stratosphere enough times, you gotta figure they've developed a prretty high threshold of pain/injury.”
“i.....am............dying.....................i'vebeen..............spatula'd........................to.........death...”