[f. SPOON v.1 + DRIFT sb.] Spray swept from the tops of waves by a violent wind and driven continuously along the surface of the sea. Now commonly SPINDRIFT.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Spoon-Drift, a sort of showery sprinkling of the sea-water, swept from the surface of the waves in a tempest, and flying according to the direction of the wind like a vapour.
1791. Nairne, Poems, 109. When the bold seaman can no longer brave The dreadful spoondrift of the foaming wave.
1840. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., III. 181/2. A light-vessel … ever and anon submerged in the trough of sea, spray, and spoon-drift.
1847. Sir J. C. Ross, Voy. Antarct. Reg., I. 51. The violent gusts that rushed along the almost perpendicular coast line, raising the spoon-drift in clouds over us.
1886. R. C. Leslie, Sea Painter’s Log, 108. The hard black hills of water … being almost hidden a few hundred yards from the ship by this driving spoondrift.
transf. 1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 644. Driving snow is also sometimes termed spoon-drift.
