Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
An informal metaphor for chronic illness or disability that uses "spoons" to represent the finite units of physical and mental energy that a person has available for daily tasks.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Coined by writer and disability advocate Christine Miserandino in a 2003 blog post recounting an incident in which she explained living with lupus to a friend in a diner by gathering spoons from other tables to serve as visual props for a metaphor.
