spit and image

A form of spitting image — The exact likeness (of someone); a speaking or living image.

Meanings

nounspit and image (uncountable)
  1. uncommonuncountableUsually preceded by "the"Uncommon form of spitting image.

    Like surgically detached Siamese twins, the Dutch fashion designers Viktor and Rolf are the spit and image of each other.

    2002 December 8, Román Alonso and Lisa Eisner, “Style; Double Dutch”, in The New York Times
    3 more examples

    "Well!" he exclaimed. "If 'tain't, 'tis the very spit and image of that there what I sees her handle! But they things be pretty much of a muchness, I reckon, master."

    1923, J. S. Fletcher, The Markenmore Mystery, Chapter 21

    When they insist you’re this other woman’s spit and image, say: “Actually, we look nothing alike, aside from our skin color.”

    2013 April 4, Philip Galanes, “One of a Kind”, in The New York Times

    There was also Old Miliken, who'd apparently been a whiz in his time but was now an aged drunk who looked the spit and image of the aging portrait in The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

    2019 August 26, Elayne Grant Archer, Crossing Troubled Waters, page 89
Cite this entry
APA

spit and image. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spit%20and%20image

MLA

“spit and image.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spit%20and%20image. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “spit and image,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spit%20and%20image.

Source: spit and image on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.