1
: remarkable of its kind
2
: being fresh and strong : brisk
Synonyms
Adjective
- active
- airy
- animate
- animated
- bouncing
- brisk
- energetic
- frisky
- gay
- jaunty
- jazzy
- kinetic
- lively
- mettlesome
- peppy
- perky
- pert
- pizzazzy
- pizazzy
- racy
- snappy
- sparky
- spirited
- sprightly
- springy
- vital
- vivacious
- zippy
Adverb
- achingly
- almighty
- archly
- awful
- awfully
- badly
- beastly
- blisteringly
- bone
- colossally
- corking
- cracking
- damn
- damned
- dang
- deadly
- desperately
- eminently
- enormously
- especially
- ever
- exceedingly
- exceeding
- extra
- extremely
- fabulously
- fantastically
- far
- fiercely
- filthy
- frightfully
- full
- greatly
- heavily
- highly
- hugely
- immensely
- incredibly
- intensely
- jolly
- majorly
- mightily
- mighty
- monstrous [chiefly dialect]
- mortally
- most
- much
- particularly
- passing
- rattling
- real
- really
- right
- roaring
- roaringly
- seriously
- severely
- so
- sore
- sorely
- specially
- stinking
- such
- super
- supremely
- surpassingly
- terribly
- that
- thumping
- too
- unco
- uncommonly
- vastly
- very
- vitally
- way
- whacking
- wicked
- wildly
Examples of spanking in a Sentence
Adjective
a spanking and speedy little horse
Adverb
He keeps his apartment spanking clean.
the bathroom tiles were spanking white when she finished cleaning them
Recent Examples on the Web
Christopher Cameron, Robb Report, 16 May 2023
My Cat looks tiny and out-of-place among the spanking new hot rods parked out front.
—John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 26 Mar. 2023
After the spanking incident, Blount players posted a video in support of Harris.
—Ben Thomas | Bthomas@al.com, al, 8 Jan. 2023
These are hard-to-excuse deficiencies in a spanking-new design, but this Saab is hardly a loser.
—Don Schroeder, Car and Driver, 3 Jan. 2023
At the spanking-new Aman, well-heeled New Yorkers are finally returning to the illustrious Crown Building.
—Tony Perrottet, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Dec. 2022
Whether the ideas of Pielke etc are old or spanking brand new is beside the point.
—Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 16 Oct. 2010
On today's 5 Things podcast, reporter Sarah Elbeshbishi explains how spanking at school is still legal in over a dozen states.
—Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 1 Sep. 2022
The deal to send these elephants to the Middle East had begun a year earlier, when Dubai Safari Park, a spanking-new facility in the desert, dispatched middlemen to Laos to locate handlers, known as mahouts, willing to sell.
—Paul Kvinta, Outside Online, 12 Nov. 2019
Christina Capatides, CBS News, 11 May 2018
Is this just about opportunistic politicians dipping into state coffers so they can be photographed cutting the ribbon at a spanking new factory?
—New York Times, 8 May 2018
Their long-somnolent town is suddenly encountering a group of international urbanites with gleamingly expensive and outlandishly new equipment: sophisticated farm machinery, spanking new mobile homes, Rolls Royces.
—Wendla McGovern, The New Republic, 12 Apr. 2018
See More
Adjective
But the 98-room hotel — occupying floors 40 to 45 of a spanking new mixed-use tower above Tokyo Station in the salary-man district of Chiyoda — is also a first for the brand.
—Christopher Cameron, Robb Report, 16 May 2023
My Cat looks tiny and out-of-place among the spanking new hot rods parked out front.
—John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 26 Mar. 2023
After the spanking incident, Blount players posted a video in support of Harris.
—Ben Thomas | Bthomas@al.com, al, 8 Jan. 2023
These are hard-to-excuse deficiencies in a spanking-new design, but this Saab is hardly a loser.
—Don Schroeder, Car and Driver, 3 Jan. 2023
At the spanking-new Aman, well-heeled New Yorkers are finally returning to the illustrious Crown Building.
—Tony Perrottet, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Dec. 2022
Whether the ideas of Pielke etc are old or spanking brand new is beside the point.
—Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 16 Oct. 2010
On today's 5 Things podcast, reporter Sarah Elbeshbishi explains how spanking at school is still legal in over a dozen states.
—Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 1 Sep. 2022
The deal to send these elephants to the Middle East had begun a year earlier, when Dubai Safari Park, a spanking-new facility in the desert, dispatched middlemen to Laos to locate handlers, known as mahouts, willing to sell.
—Paul Kvinta, Outside Online, 12 Nov. 2019
Adverb
There was Vice President Biden's inaugural bromance selfie with President Obama on his brand spanking new Instagram account.
—Christina Capatides, CBS News, 11 May 2018
Is this just about opportunistic politicians dipping into state coffers so they can be photographed cutting the ribbon at a spanking new factory?
—New York Times, 8 May 2018
Their long-somnolent town is suddenly encountering a group of international urbanites with gleamingly expensive and outlandishly new equipment: sophisticated farm machinery, spanking new mobile homes, Rolls Royces.
—Wendla McGovern, The New Republic, 12 Apr. 2018
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spanking.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Phrases Containing spanking
Dictionary Entries Near spanking
Cite this Entry
“Spanking.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spanking. Accessed 9 Dec. 2023.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
spanking
1 of 2 adjective
spank·ing
ˈspaŋ-kiŋ 
: brisk sense 1, lively
a spanking breeze
spanking
2 of 2 adverb
: very entry 2 sense 2
a spanking clean floor
spanking new
More from Merriam-Webster on spanking
Nglish: Translation of spanking for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of spanking for Arabic Speakers
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