I. spout 1 /spaʊt/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
1 . a small pipe on the side of a container that you pour liquid out through
2 . spout of water/blood etc a sudden strong stream of liquid which comes out of somewhere very fast ⇨ ↑ waterspout (1)
3 . up the spout British English informal if something is up the spout, it is completely wrong or has failed completely:
The computer’s up the spout!
My plans for the weekend seem to have gone up the spout.
II. spout 2 BrE AmE verb
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Middle Dutch ; Origin: spouten ]
1 .
a) [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] if liquid or fire spouts from somewhere, it comes out very quickly in a powerful stream SYN spurt
spout from
Blood was spouting from the wound in her arm.
b) [transitive] to send out liquid or flames very quickly in a powerful stream:
a volcano spouting lava
2 . ( also spout off ) [intransitive and transitive] informal to talk a lot about something in a boring or annoying way:
My father was spouting his usual nonsense!
I hate it when he spouts off like that!
spout about
I’m tired of listening to Jim spouting about politics.
3 . [intransitive] if a ↑ whale spouts, it sends out a stream of water from a hole in its head