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The Collaborative International Dictionary
To put up the spout

Spout \Spout\, n. [Cf. Sw. spruta a squirt, a syringe. See Spout, v. t.]

  1. That through which anything spouts; a discharging lip, pipe, or orifice; a tube, pipe, or conductor of any kind through which a liquid is poured, or by which it is conveyed in a stream from one place to another; as, the spout of a teapot; a spout for conducting water from the roof of a building.
    --Addison. ``A conduit with three issuing spouts.''
    --Shak.

    In whales . . . an ejection thereof [water] is contrived by a fistula, or spout, at the head.
    --Sir T. Browne.

    From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide.
    --Pope.

  2. A trough for conducting grain, flour, etc., into a receptacle.

  3. A discharge or jet of water or other liquid, esp. when rising in a column; also, a waterspout.

    To put up the spout, To shove up the spout, or To pop up the spout, to pawn or pledge at a pawnbroker's; -- in allusion to the spout up which the pawnbroker sent the ticketed articles. [Cant]