spoons

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of spoon.

   We ran out of clean spoons before dessert was served.

   The waiter laid out forks, knives, and spoons for the banquet.

   Note

   A regular plural made with -s, and it carries every meaning of the singular. That covers dessert spoons, wooden spoons for stirring and fishing spoons in a tackle box. In rowing slang it also covers a crew's oars. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, as in "she spoons the batter." It also names two things that exist only in the plural: a folk percussion instrument and a children's card game.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of spoon.

   The chef spoons a rich sauce over the roasted vegetables.

   She spoons the batter carefully into the muffin tin.

   Note

   Every sense of the verb takes this regular -s form. A cook spoons sauce over a dish, a sleeper spoons a partner, and an angler spoons for fish with a concave lure. A player who pushes the ball up weakly instead of striking it cleanly also spoons it. In dated use, someone who spoons is flirting or courting, which makes it the active counterpart of the slang "infatuated" adjective.

3. 3
   nounplural

   A pair of spoons played as a percussion instrument by tapping them rhythmically against the body.

   The old fiddler's brother rattled out a rhythm on the spoons.

   At the ceilidh, one dancer pulled out a pair of spoons and joined the music.

   Note

   A folk percussion instrument made from two ordinary spoons held back to back. Their bowls click together when they are struck against the knee, the palm or another part of the body. The word exists only in the plural. You play the spoons or a pair of spoons, never "a spoons," in the same way that a fiddler plays the fiddle.

4. 4
   noununcountableplural

   A fast-paced children's card game in which players race to collect four matching cards and snatch a spoon from the center.

   Every round of spoons ended with a frantic grab and a burst of laughter.

   She always won spoons because she watched everyone's hands instead of her own cards.

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