spiffing

9.9

Very good and enjoyable

adjective
/ˈspɪfɪŋ/

Archaic

: excelente

She wore a spiffing hat that caught everyone's attention at the event.

Examples

The party was absolutely spiffing, with great music and delicious food.
Think Geek cards look pretty spiffing, and green really is your color.

Blog text (20)
I can't live knowing that I sent the spiffing Brit some papery ass tea.
His presentation on renewable energy was spiffing and left everyone impressed.

Synonyms

neat

vsspiffing

Informal

188 7.0

Very good and impressive

is chiefly British and more dated or formal in tone

corking

vsspiffing

Archaic

8.6

Very good and enjoyable

is chiefly British and more dated in tone than that

smashing

vsspiffing

Archaic

7.6

Very good, enjoyable, and attractive in a lively way

is similar but less intensely enthusiastic

Antonyms

terrible

∞ 1.0

Very bad or unpleasant and often serious

awful

∞ 1.0

Very bad or unpleasant and causing dislike

How Good

outstanding

257 3.4

spiffing

Archaic

9.9

good

∞ 1.0

acceptable

477 2.5

disappointing

190 1.4

Surface Forms

spiffing positive

Morphology

spiffing = spiff (semi-transparent) = spiff + ing

Formed by a regular suffixation of 'spiff' + '-ing', but the meaning 'excellent' is a figurative extension from 'smart/stylish' and is dated/slang.

Etymology

Spiffing comes from the informal words spiff and spiffy, which meant 'smart' or 'neat'. Think of someone 'spiffed up' — dressed and looking great — and you can remember that spiffing means 'excellent' or 'splendid', mainly in British English.