Meaning of Spleen | Babel Free

Definitions

1. In vertebrates, including humans, a ductless vascular gland, located in the left upper abdomen near the stomach, which destroys old red blood cells, removes debris from the bloodstream, acts as a reservoir of blood, and produces lymphocytes.
   countable, uncountable
2. A bad mood; spitefulness. Compare gall.
   archaic, countable, uncountable
3. A sudden motion or action; a fit; a freak; a whim.
   countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable
4. Melancholy; hypochondriacal affections.
   countable, obsolete, uncountable
5. A fit of immoderate laughter or merriment.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“In noble minds some dregs remain, / Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain.”

“Too many, however, who might take an honourable stand, fear the petty spleen of the plantocracy; preferring the most disgusting adulation, to the blessing of him ready to perish.”

“The name I like best, however, I heard uttered by the Eldest Son of the House of Chou, who in a moment of spleen referred to his colleague of the House of Liang as hsiao chu-tan, the Little Pig’s Egg.”

“Sullen now, with stultified spleen, Mrs Dibble grappled her crutches and levered herself upright after an ungainly struggle.”

“A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways. Brief as the lightning in the collied night; That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth”

“Bodies changed to various forms by spleen.”

“There is a luxury in self-dispraise: / And inward self-disparagement affords / To meditative spleen a grateful feast.”

“By virtue, thou enforcest laughter ; thy silly thought, my spleen”

CEFR level