spree
noun
- act on impulse
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L333098 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ʃpɹeɪ/ / /spɹeɪ/ / /spɹiː/
name
Etymology: Etymology tree German Spreebor. English Spree Borrowed from German Spree.
- A river in Germany that flows through Lusatia and into Berlin, where it flows into the Havel.
noun
Etymology: Unknown. According to Douglas Harper’s Online Etymological Dictionary, “a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Barnhart] an alteration of French esprit (“lively wit”) (see esprit). According to Klein, Irish spré seems to be a loan-word from Old Norse sprakr. Watkins proposes a possible origin as an alteration of Scots spreath (“cattle raid”), from Gaelic sprédh, spré (“cattle; wealth”), from Middle Irish preit, preid (“booty”), ultimately from Latin praeda (“plunder, booty”)”.
- Uninhibited activity.
“spending spree”
“Then all three major builders were called upon to deliver 105 Berkshires before the buying spree was over.”
- A merry frolic; especially, a drinking frolic.
“Tradition says she spent the last two years of her life in the strange den I have been speaking of, after having indulged herself in one final, triumphant and satisfying spree.”
“It would be a long time before he could be like the majority of these men of the road, who roamed until the hunger for drink and for women mastered them, and then went to work with a purpose in mind, and stopped when they had the price of a spree.”
verb
Etymology: Unknown. According to Douglas Harper’s Online Etymological Dictionary, “a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Barnhart] an alteration of French esprit (“lively wit”) (see esprit). According to Klein, Irish spré seems to be a loan-word from Old Norse sprakr. Watkins proposes a possible origin as an alteration of Scots spreath (“cattle raid”), from Gaelic sprédh, spré (“cattle; wealth”), from Middle Irish preit, preid (“booty”), ultimately from Latin praeda (“plunder, booty”)”.
- To engage in a spree.
“And I never spreed with the fellows as a student any more than I had enjoyed myself with the lads in the playground.”