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Definition of Spic-and-span
1. Adjective. Conspicuously new. "A spick-and-span novelty"
2. Adjective. Completely neat and clean. "Their spic red-visored caps"
Similar to: Clean
Derivative terms: Immaculateness, Spotlessness
Lexicographical Neighbors of Spic-and-span
Literary usage of Spic-and-span
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Varieties of Literature: Being, Principally, Selections from the Portfolio by John Henry Brady (1826)
"Another Account—" Spic and span new" is an idea taken from cloth stretched or
expanded on the spikes or tenter-hooks; which is said to be " spic or span new ..."
2. Words, Facts, and Phrases: A Dictionary of Curious, Quaint, & Out-of-the-way by Eliezer Edwards (1882)
"Spic and span new is said to be cloth just taken off the spikes or spanners used
in stretching it. Another derivation of the latter will, however, ..."
3. Lives of Twelve Good Men by John William Burgon (1889)
"... Mr. John Higgins with a sight of many of the poet's lesser efforts,—" spic
and span " as she phrased it,—transcribed in her own beautiful Italian hand. ..."
4. Lives of Twelve Good Men by John William Burgon (1888)
"... admiration of Cowper, Mrs. Unwin used to indulge Mr. John Higgins with a sight
of many of the poet's lesser efforts,—" spic and span " as she phrased it ..."
5. Lives of Twelve Good Men by John William Burgon (1888)
"... Mr. John Higgins with a sight of many of the poet's lesser efforts,—" spic
and span " as she phrased it,—transcribed in her own beautiful Italian hand. ..."
6. Camera (1907)
"... though he painted emotionally, painted with strength and a sane sincerity that
make his works as little sugary as they are dazzling, or spic and span, ..."
7. The Attaché: Or Sam Slick in England by Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1856)
"Congregations are rigged out in their spic and span bran new clothes, silks,
satins, ribbins, leghorns, ..."
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