"spit the dummy" meaning in English

See spit the dummy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-spit the dummy.ogg [Australia] Forms: spits the dummy [present, singular, third-person], spitting the dummy [participle, present], spat the dummy [participle, past], spat the dummy [past], spit the dummy [participle, past], spit the dummy [past]
Etymology: Referring to a baby having a tantrum and spitting out its dummy. Head templates: {{en-verb|spit<,,spat:spit> the dummy}} 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. (informal, chiefly Australia) To overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner. Tags: Australia, informal Synonyms: throw a tantrum, throw one's toys out of the pram Related terms: dummy spit, have a cow, hissy fit
    Sense id: en-spit_the_dummy-en-verb-K0R1t4g1 Categories (other): Australian English, English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for spit the dummy meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to a baby having a tantrum and spitting out its dummy.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spits the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spitting the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spat the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spat the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spit the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spit the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "spit<,,spat:spit> the dummy"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Australian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He'll really spit the dummy when he hears that he's not going on that trip."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner."
      ],
      "id": "en-spit_the_dummy-en-verb-K0R1t4g1",
      "links": [
        [
          "angry",
          "angry"
        ],
        [
          "childish",
          "childish"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, chiefly Australia) To overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "dummy spit"
        },
        {
          "word": "have a cow"
        },
        {
          "word": "hissy fit"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "throw a tantrum"
        },
        {
          "word": "throw one's toys out of the pram"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-spit the dummy.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/83/En-au-spit_the_dummy.ogg/En-au-spit_the_dummy.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/En-au-spit_the_dummy.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "spit the dummy"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to a baby having a tantrum and spitting out its dummy.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spits the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spitting the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spat the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spat the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spit the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spit the dummy",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "spit<,,spat:spit> the dummy"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dummy spit"
    },
    {
      "word": "have a cow"
    },
    {
      "word": "hissy fit"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He'll really spit the dummy when he hears that he's not going on that trip."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "angry",
          "angry"
        ],
        [
          "childish",
          "childish"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, chiefly Australia) To overreact (as an adult) to a situation, in an angry and childish manner."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-spit the dummy.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/83/En-au-spit_the_dummy.ogg/En-au-spit_the_dummy.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/En-au-spit_the_dummy.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "throw a tantrum"
    },
    {
      "word": "throw one's toys out of the pram"
    }
  ],
  "word": "spit the dummy"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.