spur-of-the-moment

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Done without prior planning or thought

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Được thực hiện mà không cần kế hoạch hoặc suy nghĩ trước

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a sudden decision made as if spurred on at the moment
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She decided to quit her job on a spur-of-the-moment decision

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “spur-of-the-moment” mean?

Done without prior planning or thought Literally: a sudden decision made as if spurred on at the moment

Is “spur-of-the-moment” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.