sploot

English

WOTD – 12 August 2026

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /spluːt/, /splʊt/
  • Audio (Southern England); /spluːt/:(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /splut/, /splʊt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːt

Etymology 1

Imitative of the sound.

Interjection

sploot

  1. Used to represent a plop or splash.
Translations

Etymology 2

An English bulldog splooting (verb sense 1).
A squirrel splooting (verb sense 1).

Origin uncertain, possibly a variant of splat,[1][2] splay, or split. The ending -oot could either be due to one of the preceding words being blended with scoot, or simply a modification to make the term sound cute (compare bork from bark, floof from fluff, hooman from human, etc.).[3]

Noun

sploot (plural sploots)

  1. (slang) An animal's posture of lying flat on its stomach with its hind legs extended. [from early 21st c.]
    • 2016 December 13, Elizabeth J. Duncan, “Ill Met by Murder”, in A Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery, Crooked Lane Books, page 207:
      Rupert wandered restlessly around for a few minutes and finally settled at Charlotte's feet, his feathery back legs stretched out behind him in what corgi owners call a sploot.
    • 2018 September, J. Warner Wallace, Forensic Faith for Kids, Learn to Share the Truth from a Real Detective, David C Cook, unpaged:
      “That's called a corgi ‘sploot,’” informs Jason.
    • 2021, Debbie Baldwin, Illicit Intent, Gatekeeper Press, unpaged:
      Inside, Calliope turned to see her rottweiler, Coco, engaging in her wake up stretches: butt up, paws out, followed by back legs out behind her in a sploot.
Translations

Verb

sploot (third-person singular simple present sploots, present participle splooting, simple past and past participle splooted)

  2. (intransitive, slang) Of an animal: to lie flat on its stomach with its hind legs extended. [from early 21st c.]
    Synonyms: frog, pancake
    • 2019, March 5, Amber Royer, Pure Chocolate, Watkins Media, unpaged:
      Four of the dragons sploot flat instead of sitting — a gesture they must have picked up from their time being Frank’s corgi.
    • 2020 August 20, Matthew Wright, DailyMail.com[2]:
      Squirrels in the U.S. are 'splooting' in an attempt to stay cool and close to the ground as the heat blazes across the country
    • 2020 September 21, Paige Sleuth, Arrested in Cherry Hills, Amazon KDP, chapter 6, unpaged:
      With his front paws tucked underneath his chest and his hind legs splayed behind him in a splooting pose, he didn’t appear to have a care in the world.
    • 2020 November 3, Tama Fortner, “Homecoming Tales”, in 15 Inspiring Stories from Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, Thomas Nelson, page 82:
      Not many big dogs do the sploot, but Pooh Bear will sploot just about anytime and anywhere. She even splooted in the middle of the mall while waiting to see Santa!
Derived terms
Translations

References

  1. ^ “sploot, v. and n.”, in Merriam-Webster Online, Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1996–present.
  2. ^ “sploot, v. and n.”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
  3. ^ Victor [Henry] Mair (13 August 2022), “Does ‘Splooting’ have an Etymology?”, in Language Log‎[1], archived from the original on 14 January 2026.

Further reading

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