Meanings
present singular third person spanges · participle present spanging · participle past spanged · past spanged
- USintransitiveTo beg, particularly using the phrase “spare change?”
2009, Kelly Myers, 33, quoted in Joe Deegan, “Nowhere To Go”, San Diego Reader Then my father would send all us kids out to ‘spange’ [beg for spare change]. You could sometimes make $50 a day by spanging. Other days you might make a dollar.
1 more example
1996, Tim “Salvage”, quoted in Ian Fisher, “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold.” I don’t spange much because I really don’t like doing it. I eat out of trash cans a lot.
Origin
Blend of spare + change, from stereotyped phrase “spare change?”, “[can you] spare any change?”
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with spange
Anagrams
Cite this entry
spange. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spange
“spange.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spange. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “spange,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spange.
Source: spange on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.