spook

1 someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric [syn: creep, weirdo, weirdie, weirdy]

2 a mental representation of some haunting experience; "he looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters from his past" [syn: ghost, shade, wraith, specter, spectre] v : frighten or scare, and often provoke into a violent action; "The noise spooked the horse"

English

Etymology

Dutch: spook (ghost)

Pronunciation

• /spuːk/
• /spu:k/

  Rhymes: -uːk

Noun

1. A spirit returning to haunt a place
   • The visit to the old cemetery brought scary visions of spooks and ghosts.
2. a ghost or an apparition
3. a hobgoblin.
4. A spy.
5. A black person

Translations

• Finnish: kummitus, aave (1, 2); mörkö (3); vakooja (4)
• German: Gespenst, Phantom, Geist, Spuk
• Italian: spettro, fantasma

Verb

1. to scare or frighten someone or
2. to frighten an animal
   • The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.

Translations

• Finnish: pelotella (1), säikyttää (2)

Related terms

• spooky

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

spook (plural: spoken)

1. phantom, ghost

   Geloof je in spoken? — Do you believe in ghosts?

Verb

spook

1. first person singular of spoken

Spook can mean:

• An alternative term (Dutch, from Middle Dutch spooc) for a ghost
• A colloquial term for a spy or a member of the Central Intelligence Agency
• A derogatory term for an African American
• Spook (band), an Australian trip hop band
• A character from The Wardstone Chronicles
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, an irreverent book about the study of life after death, by Mary Roach

Spooks can mean:

• Spooks, a UK TV show (called MI-5 in the US)
• The Spooks, a band
• Spooks!, a Three Stooges film

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