Other forms: spewing, spewed, spews
To spew is to pour out in a violent stream. Smoke from a chimney, water from a broken main.
The volume and the force are what matter, and the word always suggests something unpleasant coming out fast. It usually takes out. There is an informal sense meaning to vomit, which is blunt and slightly childish. The commonest figurative use is about words, since spewing abuse or spewing lies describes speech pouring out with no control on it, and that use is always hostile.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ptyēw- — to spit, vomit
Proto-Germanic
*spīwaną
Proto-West Germanic
*spīwan
Old English
spīwan
Middle English
spewen
English, today
spew
From Middle English spewen, from Old English spīwan, from Proto-West Germanic spīwan, from Proto-Germanic spīwaną, from Proto-Indo-European (s)ptyēw- (“to spit, vomit”). Germanic cognates include English spit, West Frisian spije, Dutch spuien, Dutch spuwen, Low German speen, spiien, German speien (“to spew, spit, vomit”), Swedish spy, Danish spy, Faroese spýggja, Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌴𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽. Also cognate, through Indo-European, with Latin spuō (“spit”), Ancient Greek πτύω (“spit, vomit”), Albanian fyt (“throat”), Armenian թուք, Russian плева́ть, Persian تف, Sanskrit ष्ठीवति.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 11 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word