spit and image

spit and image (uncountable)

1. (Usually preceded by "the") Uncommon form of spitting image.
   • 1923, J. S. Fletcher, The Markenmore Mystery, Chapter 21:

     "Well!" he exclaimed. "If 'tain't, 'tis the very spit and image of that there what I sees her handle! But they things be pretty much of a muchness, I reckon, master."

   • 2002 December 8, Román Alonso and Lisa Eisner, “Style; Double Dutch”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Like surgically detached Siamese twins, the Dutch fashion designers Viktor and Rolf are the spit and image of each other.

   • 2013 April 4, Philip Galanes, “One of a Kind”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     When they insist you’re this other woman’s spit and image, say: “Actually, we look nothing alike, aside from our skin color.”

   • 2019 August 26, Elayne Grant Archer, Crossing Troubled Waters‎^[3], page 89:

     There was also Old Miliken, who'd apparently been a whiz in his time but was now an aged drunk who looked the spit and image of the aging portrait in The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:spit and image.

Although "spit and image" is uncommon nowadays, some usage guides such as The New York Times insist on "spit and image", labelling "spitting image" as erroneous.