image

the very likeness of someone; a very close resemblence to someone. (*The second version is a frequent error. *Typically: be ~; look like ~.) John is the spit and image of his father. At first, I thought you were saying "spitting image."

to look very much the same as someone else He's the spitting image of his father.

A precise resemblance, especially in closely related persons. For example, Dirk is the spitting image of his grandfather. This idiom alludes to the earlier use of the noun spit for "likeness," in turn probably derived from an old proverb, "as like as one as if he had been spit out of his mouth" (c. 1400). The current idiom dates from about 1900.