spook

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spook

(spo͞ok)

1. Informal A ghost; a specter.

2. Slang A secret agent; a spy.

3. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a black person.

v. spooked, spook·ing, spooks

v.tr.

1. To haunt.

2. To startle and cause nervous activity in; frighten: The news spooked investors, and stock prices fell.

v.intr.

To become frightened and nervous.

[Dutch, from Middle Dutch spooc.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

spook

(spuːk)

1. a ghost or a person suggestive of this

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) US and Canadian a spy

3. (Brewing) slang South African any pale or colourless alcoholic spirit: spook and diesel.

vb (tr)

4. to frighten: to spook horses; to spook a person.

5. (Alternative Belief Systems) (of a ghost) to haunt

[C19: Dutch spook, from Middle Low German spōk ghost]

ˈspookish adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

spook

(spuk)

n.

1. a ghost; specter.

2. Informal. an espionage agent; spy.

v.t.

3. to haunt; inhabit or appear in or to as a ghost or specter.

4. to frighten; scare.

v.i.

5. to become frightened or scared.

[1795–1805, Amer.; < Dutch; compare Middle Low German spōk]

spook′er•y, n.

spook′ish, adj.

spook

Past participle: spooked
Gerund: spooking

Imperative
spook
spook

Present
I spook
you spook
he/she/it spooks
we spook
you spook
they spook

Preterite
I spooked
you spooked
he/she/it spooked
we spooked
you spooked
they spooked

Present Continuous
I am spooking
you are spooking
he/she/it is spooking
we are spooking
you are spooking
they are spooking

Present Perfect
I have spooked
you have spooked
he/she/it has spooked
we have spooked
you have spooked
they have spooked

Past Continuous
I was spooking
you were spooking
he/she/it was spooking
we were spooking
you were spooking
they were spooking

Past Perfect
I had spooked
you had spooked
he/she/it had spooked
we had spooked
you had spooked
they had spooked

Future
I will spook
you will spook
he/she/it will spook
we will spook
you will spook
they will spook

Future Perfect
I will have spooked
you will have spooked
he/she/it will have spooked
we will have spooked
you will have spooked
they will have spooked

Future Continuous
I will be spooking
you will be spooking
he/she/it will be spooking
we will be spooking
you will be spooking
they will be spooking

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been spooking
you have been spooking
he/she/it has been spooking
we have been spooking
you have been spooking
they have been spooking

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been spooking
you will have been spooking
he/she/it will have been spooking
we will have been spooking
you will have been spooking
they will have been spooking

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been spooking
you had been spooking
he/she/it had been spooking
we had been spooking
you had been spooking
they had been spooking

Conditional
I would spook
you would spook
he/she/it would spook
we would spook
you would spook
they would spook

Past Conditional
I would have spooked
you would have spooked
he/she/it would have spooked
we would have spooked
you would have spooked
they would have spooked

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	spook - someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric creep, weirdie, weirdo, weirdy disagreeable person, unpleasant person - a person who is not pleasant or agreeable
	2.	spook - a mental representation of some haunting experience; "he looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters from his past" ghost, specter, wraith, spectre, shade fantasm, phantasm, phantasma, phantom, shadow, apparition - something existing in perception only; "a ghostly apparition at midnight"
Verb	1.	spook - frighten or scare, and often provoke into a violent action; "The noise spooked the horse" affright, fright, frighten, scare - cause fear in; "The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me"; "Ghosts could never affright her"

spook

noun

1. ghost, spirit, phantom, spectre, soul, shade (literary), manes, apparition, wraith, revenant, phantasm, eidolon She woke up to see a spook hovering over her bed.

2. (U.S. informal) spy, secret agent, double agent, secret service agent, undercover agent, mole, foreign agent, fifth columnist, nark (Brit., Austral., & N.Z. slang) a U.S. intelligence spook

verb

1. frighten, alarm, scare, terrify, startle, intimidate, daunt, unnerve, petrify, scare (someone) stiff, put the wind up (someone) (informal), scare the living daylights out of (someone) (informal), make your hair stand on end (informal), get the wind up, make your blood run cold, throw into a panic, scare the bejesus out of (informal), affright (archaic), freeze your blood, make (someone) jump out of his skin (informal), throw into a fright But was it the wind that spooked her?

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

spook

noun

1. Informal. A supernatural being, such as a ghost:

apparition, bogey, bogeyman, bogle, eidolon, ghost, phantasm, phantasma, phantom, revenant, shade, shadow, specter, spirit, visitant, wraith.

Regional: haunt.

2. Informal. A person who secretly observes others to obtain information:

agent, operative, spy.

Idiom: secret agent.

Translations

شَبَح، خَيال

strašidlo

spøgelse

draugur

spoks

spook

[spuːk]

A. N

1. (= ghost) → espectro m, aparición f

2. (US) (= secret agent) → espía mf, agente mf secreto/a

B. VT (US)

1. (= haunt) → aparecerse en, rondar

2. (= frighten) → asustar, pegar un susto a

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

spook

[ˈspuːk]

(= ghost) → fantôme m

(US) (= secret agent) → barbouze m

vt (mainly US) (= scare) → faire peur à
to be spooked by sth → être effrayé(e) par qch

spook

(inf)

→ Gespenst nt

(US: = spy) → Spion(in) m(f)

vt (esp US: = frighten) → einen Schrecken einjagen (+dat)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

spook

[spuːk] n (fam) → fantasma m, spettro

spook

(spuːk) noun

a ghost.

ˈspooky adjective

eerie and suggesting the presence of ghosts. It's very spooky walking through the graveyard at night.

ˈspookiness noun

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References in periodicals archive ?

Helena, where they traffic with convicts, madmen, slaves and chartered company "Perpetuals," while also enduring "the spookish fug of Maskelyne's Sermons upon the Unknown"; and to America, "when the World was yet feudal," to hew by ax a "Visto" through the heart of darkness, eight yards wide and due west, in a Decameron of misfits who might as well have time-traveled to enlist after the last V-2 obliterated Vheissu -- Children of the Rainbow as mad and motley as the midgets, clairvoyants, telekinetics, lobotomizers, Behaviorists and vaudevilleans in the White Visitation, pioneer Slothrops on a lonesome and perilous range.