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2 ADJ Spiritual means relating to people's religious beliefs. □  The spiritual leader of Ireland's 3.7 million Catholics.

3 N‑COUNT A spiritual is a religious song of the type originally sung by black slaves in America.

spir|itu|al|ism /sp I r I tʃuəl I zəm/ N‑UNCOUNT Spiritualism is the belief that the spirits of people who are dead can communicate with people who are still alive. ●  spir|itu|al|ist (spiritualists ) N‑COUNT □  He was a poet and an ardent spiritualist.

spit /sp I t/ (spits , spitting , spat ) In American English, the form spit is used as the past tense and past participle. 1 N‑UNCOUNT Spit is the watery liquid produced in your mouth. You usually use spit to refer to an amount of it that has been forced out of someone's mouth.

2 VERB If someone spits , they force an amount of liquid out of their mouth, often to show hatred or contempt. □ [V ] The gang thought of hitting him too, but decided just to spit. □ [V prep] They spat at me and taunted me. □ [V prep] She spit into the little tray of mascara and brushed it on her lashes.

3 VERB If you spit liquid or food somewhere, you force a small amount of it out of your mouth. □ [V n with out ] Spit out that gum and pay attention. □ [V n prep] He felt as if a serpent had spat venom into his eyes.

4 VERB [usu cont] If it is spitting , it is raining very lightly. [BRIT ] □ [V ] It will stop in a minute–it's only spitting. in AM, use sprinkle 5 N‑COUNT A spit is a long rod which is pushed through a piece of meat and hung over an open fire to cook the meat. □  She roasted the meat on a spit.

6 N‑COUNT A spit of land is a long, flat, narrow piece of land that sticks out into the sea.

7 PHRASE If one place is within spitting distance of another, they are very close to each other. [INFORMAL ] □ [+ of ] …a restaurant within spitting distance of the Tower of London.

8 PHRASE If you say that one person is the spitting image of another, you mean that they look very similar. [INFORMAL ] □  Nina looks the spitting image of her mother.

spite ◆◇◇ /spa I t/

1 PHRASE You use in spite of to introduce a fact which makes the rest of the statement you are making seem surprising. □  Their love of life comes in spite of, almost in defiance of, considerable hardship.

2 PHRASE If you do something in spite of yourself , you do it although you did not really intend to or expect to. □  The blunt comment made Richard laugh in spite of himself.

3 N‑UNCOUNT If you do something cruel out of spite , you do it because you want to hurt or upset someone. □  He thinks Dan has vandalised the car out of spite.

4 VERB [only to-inf] If you do something cruel to spite someone, you do it in order to hurt or upset them. □ [V n] You don't want to come because you want to spite me in front of my neighbours.

5to cut off your nose to spite your face → see nose USAGE in spite of

Don’t use ‘in spite of ’ as a conjunction. Don’t say, for example, ‘ In spite of we protested, they took him away ’. Say ‘Although we protested, they took him away’. □  Although he was late, he stopped to buy a sandwich.

spite|ful /spa I tfʊl/ ADJ Someone who is spiteful does cruel things to hurt people they dislike. □  He could be spiteful. □  …a stream of spiteful telephone calls. ●  spite|ful|ly ADV [ADV with v] □  We crept into our little sister's bedroom and spitefully defaced her pop posters.

spit|tle /sp I t ^ə l/ N‑UNCOUNT Spittle is the watery liquid which is produced in your mouth. [OLD-FASHIONED ] □  Spittle oozed down his jaw.

spiv /sp I v/ (spivs ) N‑COUNT A spiv is a man who does not have a regular job and who makes money by business deals which are usually illegal. [BRIT , INFORMAL ]