SPAAD, noun A kind of mineral; spar.

SPACE, noun [Latin spatium, space; spatior, to wander. This word is probably formed on the root of pateo.]

1. Room; extension. space in the abstract, is mere extension. Pure space is capable neither of resistance nor motion.

2. Any quantity of extension. In relation to bodies, space is the interval between any two or more object' as the space between two stars or two hills The quantity of space or extent between bodies, constitutes their distance form each other.

3. The distance or interval between lines; as in books. The space in music are named as well as the lines.

4. Quantity of time; also, the interval between two points of time. Nine times the space that measures day and God may defer his judgment for a time, and give a people a longer space for repentance.

5. A short time; a while. To stay your deadly strife a space [This sense is nearly obsolete.]

SPACE, verb intransitive To rove. [Not in use.]

SPACE, verb transitive Among printers, to make space or wider intervals between lines.

SPA'CEFUL, adjective Wide; extensive. [Not used.]

SPA'CIOUS, adjective [Latin spatiosus.]

1. Wide; roomy; having large or ample room; not narrow; as a spacious church; a spacious hall or drawing room.

2. Extensive; vast in extent; as the spacious earth; the spacious ocean.

SPA'CIOUSLY, adverb Widely; extensively.

SPA'CIOUSNESS, noun

1. Wideness; largeness of extent; roominess; as the spaciousness of the rooms in a building.

2. Extensiveness; vastness of extent; as the spaciousness of the ocean.

SPAD'DLE, noun [dim of spade.] A little spade.

SPADE, noun [Latin spatula, from the root of pateo.]

1. An instrument for digging, consisting of a broad palm with a handle.

2. A suit of cards.

3. A deer three years old; written also spaid.

4. A gelded beast. [Latin spado.]

SPA'DEFUL, noun [spade and full.] As much as a spade will hold.

SPADI'CEOUS, adjective [Latin spadiceus, from spadix, a light red color.]

1. Of a light red color, usually denominated bay.

2. In botany, a spadiceous flower, is a sort of aggregate flower, having a receptacle common to many florets, within a spathe, as in palms, dracontium, arum, etc.

SPADILLE, noun spadil'. The ace of spades at omber.

SPA'DIX, noun [Latin] In botany, the receptacle in palms and some other plants, proceeding from a spathe.

SPA'DO, noun [Latin] A gelding.

SPAGYR'IC, adjective [Latin spagyricus.] Chemical. [Not in use.]

SPAGYR'IC, noun A chemist. [Not in use.]

SPAG'YRIST, noun A chemist. [Not in use.]

SPA'HEE, SPA'HI, noun [See Seapoy.] One of the Turkish cavalry.

SPA'HEE, SPA'HI, noun [See Seapoy.] One of the Turkish cavalry.

SPAKE, preterit tense of speak; nearly obsolete. We now use spoke.

SPALL, noun The shoulder. [Not English.]

SPALT, SPELT, noun A whitish scaly mineral, used to promote the fusion of metals.

SPALT, adjective Cracked, as timber.

SPAN, noun [This word is formed on the root of bend, Latin pando. The primary sense is to strain, stretch, extend, hence to join a team.]

1. The space from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended; nine inches; the eighth of a fathom.

2. A short space of time. Life's but a span; I'll every inch enjoy.

3. A span of horses, consists of two of nearly the same color, and otherwise nearly alike, which are usually harness side by side. The word signifies properly the same as yoke, when applied to horned cattle, from buckling or fastening together. But in America, span always implies resemblance in color at least; it being an object of ambition with gentlemen and with teamters to unite two horses abreast that are alike.

4. In seamen's language, a small line or cord, the middle of which is attached to a stay.

SPAN, verb transitive

1. To measure by the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object; as, to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder.

2. To measure. This soul doth span the world.

SPAN, verb intransitive To agree in color, or in color and size; as, the horses span well. [New England.]

SPAN, pert. of spin. We now use spun.

SPAN'CEL, verb transitive To tie the legs of a horse or cow with a rope .

SPAN'COUNTER, SPAN'F'ARTING, noun A play at which within a span or circuit marked.

SPAN'DREL, noun The space between the curve of an arch and the right lines inclosing it.

SPANE, verb transitive To wean, [Not in use.]

SPAN'COUNTER, SPAN'F'ARTING, noun A play at which within a span or circuit marked.

SPANG, noun A spangle or shining ornament; a thin piece of shining metal; something brilliant used as an ornament.

2. An y little thing sparkling and brilliant like pieces of metal; as crystals of ice. For the rich spangles that adorn the sky.

SPAN'GLE, verb transitive To set or sprinkle with spangles; to adorn with small distinct brilliant bodies; as a spangled breastplate. What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty-

SPAN'GLED, participle passive Set with spangles.

SPAN'GLING, participle present tense Adorning with spangles.

SPAN'IEL, noun

1. A dog used in sports of the field, remarkable for his sagacity and obedience.

2. A mean, cringing, fawning person.

SPAN'IEL, adjective Like a spaniel; mean; fawning.

SPAN'IEL, verb intransitive TO fawn; to cringe; to be obsequious.

SPAN'IEL, verb transitive To follow like a spaniel

SPAN'ISH, adjective Pertaining to Spain.

SPAN'ISH, noun The language of Spain.

SPANK, verb transitive To strike with the open hand; to slap [A word common in New England.]

SPANK'ER, noun

1. A small coin.

2. In seamen's language, a ship driver; a large sail occasionally set upon the mizenyard or gaff, the foot being extended by a boom.

3. One that takes long strides in walking; also a stout person.

SPANK'ING, participle present tense

1. Striking with the open hand

2. adjective Large; stout. [Vulgar.]

SPAN'-LONG, adjective Of the length of a span.

SPAN'NED, participle passive Measured with the hand.

SPAN'NER, noun

1. One that spans.

2. The lock of a fusee or carbine; or the fusee itself.

3. A wrench or nut screw-driver.

SPAN'NING, participle present tense Measuring with the hand; encompassing with the fingers.

SP'AR, [If this word is connected with spare, the primary sense is probably thin. The sense of bar and spar is however more generally derived from thrusting, shooting in length; so spear likewise. See Bar.]

1. A stone that breaks into a regular shape; marcasite. This name is popularly given to any crystalized mineral of a shining luster.

2. A round piece of timber. This name is usually given to the round pieces of timber used for the yards and top-masts of ships.

3. The bar of a gate.

SP'AR, verb transitive To bar; to shut close or fasten with a bar.

SP'AR, verb intransitive [This is another form of the Latin spiro. The primary sense is to urge, drive, throw, propel.]

1. To dispute; to quarrel in words; to wrangle. [This is the sense of the word in America.]

2. To fight with preclusive strokes.

SP'ARABLE, noun Small nails. [Not in use.]

SP'ARADRAP, noun In pharmacy, a cerecloth.

SPARAGE, SPARAGUS, [Vulgar.] [See Asparagus.]

SPARAGE, SPARAGUS [Vulgar.] [See Asparagus.]

SPARE, verb transitive [It seems to be from the same root as Latin parco.]

1. To use frugally; not to be profuse; not to waste. Thou thy Father's thunder did'st not spare/

2. To save or withhold from any particular use or occupation. He has no bread to spare that is, to withhold from his necessary uses. All the time he could spare from the necessary cares of his weighty charge, he bestowed on prayer and serving of God.

3. To part with without much inconvenience; to do without. I could have better spar'd a better man. Nor can we spare you long-

4. To omit; to forbear. We might have spared this toil and expense; Be pleas'd your politics to spare

5. To use tenderly; to treat with pity and forbearance; to forbear to afflict, punish or destroy. spare us, good Lord. dim sadness did not spare celestial visages. But man alone can whom be conquers spare

6. Not to take when in one's power; to forbear to destroy; as, to spare the life of a prisoner.

7. To grant; to allow; to indulge. Where anger Jove did never spare one breath of kind and temp'rate air.

8. TO forbear to inflict of impose. spare my sight the pain of seeing what a world of tears it cost you.

SPARE, verb intransitive

1. TO live frugally; to be parsimonious. Who at some times spend, as other spare divided between carelessness and care.

2. To forbear; to be scrupulous. To pluck and cat my fill I spar'd not.

3. To be frugal; not to be profuse.

4. To use mercy or forbearance; to forgive to be tender. The king was sparing and compassionate towards hid subjects.

SPARE, adjective

1. Seanty; parsimonious; not abundant; as a spare diet. He was spare but discreet of speech. [We more generally use, in the latter application, sparing; as, he was sparing of words.]

2. That can be dispensed with; not wanted; superfluous. I have no spare time on my hands. If that no spare clothes he had to give.

3. Lean; wanting flesh; meager; thin. O give me your spare men and spare me the great ones.

4. Slow. [Not in use.]

SPARE, noun Parsimony; frugal use. [Not in use.]

SPA'RED, participle passive Dispensed with; saved; forborne.

SPA'RELY, adverb Sparingly.

SPA'RENESS, noun State of being lean or thin; leanness.

SPA'RER, noun One that avoids unnecessary expense.

SPA'RERIB, noun [spare and rib.] The piece of a hog taken from the side, consisting of the ribs with little flesh on them.

SPARGEFAC'TION, noun [Latin spargo, to sprinkle.] The act of sprinkling. [Not Used.]

SPAR'ROW-HAWK, SPAR'HAWK, noun A small species of short winged hawk.

SPA'RING, participle present tense

1. Using frugally; forbearing; omitting to punish or destroy.

2. adjective Scarce; little.

3. Scanty; not plentiful; not abundant; as a sparing diet.

4. Saving; parsimonious. Virgil being so very sparing of his words, and leaving so much to be imagined by the reader, can never be translated as he ought in amy modern tongue.

SPA'RINGLY, adverb

1. Not abundantly.

2. Frugally; parsimoniously; not lavishly. High titles of honor were in the king's minority sparingly granted, because dignity then waited on desert. Commend but sparingly whom thou dost love.

3. Abstinently; moderately. Christians are obliged to taste even the innocent pleasures of life but sparingly

4. Seldom; not frequently. The morality of a grave sentence, affected by Lucan, is more sparingly used by Virgil.

5. Cautiously; tenderly.

SPA'RINGNESS, noun

1. Parsimony; want of liberality.

2. Caution.

SP'ARK, noun [The sense is that which shoots, darts off or scatters; probably allied to B. spargo.]

1. A small particle of fire or ignited substance, which is emitted from bodies in combustion, and which either ascends with the smoke, or is darted in another direction.

2. A small shining body or transient light. We have here and there a little clear light, and some sparks of bright knowledge.

3. A small portion of any thing active. If any spark of life is yet remaining.

4. A very small portion. If you have a spark or generosity.

5. A brisk, showy, gay man. The finest sparks and cleanest beaux.

6. A lover.

SP'ARK, verb intransitive To emit particles of fire; to sparkle. [Not in use.]

SP'ARKFUL, adjective Lively; brisk; gay.

SP'ARKISH, adjective

1. Airy; gay.

2. Showy; well dressed; fine.

SP'ARKLE, noun

1. A spark.

2. A luminous particle.

SP'ARKLE, verb intransitive

1. To emit sparks; to send off small ignited particles; as burning fuel, etc.

2. To glitter; to glisten; as, a brilliant sparkles; sparkling colors.

3. To twinkle; to glitter; as sparkling stars.

4. To glisten; to exhibit an appearance of animation; as, the eyes sparkle with joy.

5. To emit little bubbles, as spirituous liquors; as sparkling wine.

SP'ARKLE, verb intransitive To throw about; to scatter. [Not in use.]

SP'ARKLER, noun He or that which sparkles; one whose eyes sparkle.

SP'ARKLET, noun A small spark.

SP'ARKLINESS, noun Vivacity. [Not in use.]

SP'ARKLING, participle present tense or adjective Emitting sparks; glittering; lively; as sparkling wine; sparkling eyes.

SP'ARKLINGLY, adverb With twinkling or vivid brilliancy.

SP'ARKLINGNESS, noun Vivid and twinkling luster.

SP'ARLING, noun A smelt.

SPAR'ROW, noun A small bird of the genus Fringilla and order of Passers. These birds are frequently seen about houses.

SP'ARRY, adjective [from spar.] Resembling spar, or consisting or spar; having a confused cyrstraline structure; spathose.

SPARSE, adjective spars. [Latin sparsus, scattered, from spargo.]

1. Thinly scattered; set or planted here and there; as a sparse population.

2. In botany, not opposite, not alternate, nor in any apparent regular order; applied to branches, leaves peduncles, etc.

SPARSE, verb transitive spars. To disperse. [Not in use.]

SP'ARSED, adjective Scattered.

SP'ARSEDLY, adverb In a scattered manner.

SP'ARTAN, adjective Pertaining to ancient Sparta; hence, hardly undaunted; as spartan souls; spartan bravery.

SPASM, noun [Latin spasmus.] A n involuntary contraction of muscles or muscular fibers in animal bodies; irregular motion of the muscles or muscular fibers; convulsion; cramp.

SPASMOD'IC, adjective Consisting in spasm; as a spasmodic affection.

SPASMOD'IC, noun A medicine good for removing spasm; but I believe the word generally employed in anti-spasmodic.

SPAT, preterit tense of spit, but nearly obsolete.

SPAT, noun [from the root of spit; that which is ejected.]

1. The young of shell fish.

2. A petty combat; a little quarrel or dissension. [A vulgar use of the word in New England.]

SPATHA'CEOUS, adjective Having a calyx like a sheath.

SPATHE, noun [Latin spatha.] In botany, the calyx of a spadix opening or bursting longitudinally, in form of a sheath. It is also applied to the calyx of some flowers which have no spadix, as of narcissus, crocus, iris, etc.

SPATH'IC, adjective Foliated or lamellar. spathic iron is a mineral of a foliated structure, and a yellowish or brownish color.

SPATH'IFORM, adjective [spath and form.] Resembling spar in form. The ocherous, spathiform and mineralized forms of urinate-

SPATH'OUS, adjective Having a calyx like a sheath.

SPATH'ULATE, [See Spatulate.]

SPA'TIATE, verb transitive [Latin spatior.] To rove; to ramble. [Not in use.]

SPAT'TER, verb transitive [This root is a derivative of the family of spit, or Latin pateo. See Sputter.]

1. To scatter a liquid substance on; to sprinkle with water or any fluid, or with any moist and dirty matter; as, to spatter a coat; to spatter the floor; to spatter the boots with mud. [This word, I believe, is applied always to fluid or moist substances. We say, to spatter with water, mud, blood or gravy; but never to spatter with dust or meal.]

2. Figuratively, to asperse; to defame. [In this sense, asperse is generally used.]

3. To throw out any thing offensive; as, to spatter foul speeches. [Not in use.]

4. To scatter about; as, to spatter water here and there.

SPAT'TER, verb intransitive To throw out of the mouth in a scattered manner; to sputter. [See Sputter.]

SPAT'TERDASHES, noun plural [spatter and dash.] Coverings for the legs to keep them clean from water and mud. [Since boots are generally worn, these things and their name are little used.]

SPAT'TERED, participle passive

1. Sprinkling with moist some liquid or dirty substance.

2. Aspersed.

SPAT'TERING, participle present tense

1. Sprinkling with or foul matter.

2. Aspersing.

SPAT'TLE, noun Spittle. [Not in use.]

SPAT'ULA, SPAT'TLE, noun [Latin spathula, spatha, a slice. from the root of Latin pateo; so named from its breadth, or from its use in spreading things. A slice; an apothecaries' instrument, for spreading plasters, etc.

SPAT'ULATE, adjective [from Latin spathula.] In botany, a spatulate leaf is one shaped like a spatula or battledore, being roundish with a long, narrow, linear base; as in cistus incanus.

SPAV'IN, noun A tumor or excrescence that forms on the inside of a horse's hough, not far from the elbow; at first like gristle, but afterwards hard and bony.

SPAV'INED, adjective Affected with spavis.

SPAW, SPA, noun

1. A mineral water from a place of this name in Germany. The name may perhaps be applied to other similar waters.

2. A spring of mineral water.

SPAWL, verb intransitive To throw saliva from the mouth in a scattering form; to disperse spittle in a careless dirty manner. Why must he sputter, spawl and slaver it?

SPAWL, noun Saliva or spittle thrown out carelessly.

SPAWL'ING, participle present tense Throwing spittle carelessly from the mouth.

SPAWL'ING, noun Saliva thrown out carelessly.

SPAWN, noun It has no plural. [If this word is not contracted, it belongs to the root of Latin pano. If contracted, it probably belongs to the root of spew or spaw. The radical sense is that which is ejected or thrown out.]

1. The eggs of fish or frogs, when ejected.

2. Any product or offspring; an expression of contempt.

3. Offsets; shoots; suckers of plants. [Not in use in American.]

SPAWN, verb transitive

1. To produce or deposit, as fishes do their eggs.

2. To bring forth; to generate; in contempt.

SPAWN, verb intransitive

1. To deposit eggs, as fish or frogs.

2. To issue, as offspring; in contempt.

SPAWN'ED, participle passive Produced or deposited, as the eggs of fish or frogs.

SPAWN'ER, noun the female fish. the spawner and the melter of the barbel cover their spawn with sand.

SPAY, verb transitive [Latin spado, a gelding.] To castrate the female of a beast by cutting and by taking out the uterus; as, to spay a sow.

SPA'YED, participle passive Castrated, as a female beast.

SPA'YING, participle present tense Castrating, as a female beast.

SPEAK, verb intransitive preterit tense spoke, [spake, nearly, obsolete ] participle passive spoke, spoken. It is easy to see that the root of this word is allied to that of beak peak, pick.]

1. To utter words or articulate sounds, as human beings; to express thoughts bywords. Children learn to speak at an early age. The organs may be so obstructed that a man may not be able to speak speak Lord , for thy servant hearth. I Sam. 3.

2. To utter a speech, discourse or harangue; to utter thoughts in a public assembly. A man may be well informed on a subject, and yet to diffident to speak in public. Many of the nobility make them selves popular by speaking in parliament against those things which were most grateful to his majesty.

3. To talk; to express opinions; to dispute. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when the knave is not.

4. To discourse; to make mention of. Lucan speaks of a part of Cesar's army that came to him from the Leman lake. The Scripture speaks only of those to whom it speaks.

5. To give sound. Make all your trumpets speak

TO speak WITH, to converse with. Let me speak with my son.

SPEAK, verb transitive

1. To utter with the mouth; to pronounce; to utter articulately; as human beings. They sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him. Job 2:10. speak the word, and my son shall be healed. Matthew 8:8.

2. To declare; to proclaim; to celebrate. It is my father's music to speak your deeds.

3. To talk or converse in; to utter or pronounce, as in conversation. A man may know how to read and to understand a language which he cannot speak

4. To address; to accost. He will smile upon thee, put thee in hope, and speak thee fair.

5. To exhibit; to make known. Let heav'n's wide circuit speak the Maker's high magnificence.

6. To express silently or by signs. The lady's looks or eyes speak the meaning or wishes of her heart.

7. To communicate; as, to speak peace to the soul.

TO speak A SHIP, to hail and speak to her captain or commander. [Note. We say, to speak a word or syllable, to speak a sentence, an oration, piece, composition, or a dialogue, to speak a man's praise, etc.; but we never say, to speak an argument, a sermon or a story.]

SPE'AKABLE, adjective

1. That can be spoken.

2. Having the power of speech.

SPE'AKER, noun

1. One that speaks, in what ever manner.

2. One that proclaims or celebrates. -No other speaker of my living actions.

3. One that utters or pronounces a discourse; usually, one that utters a speech in public. We say, a man is a good speaker or a bad speaker

4. The person who presides in a deliberative assembly, preserving order and regulating the debates; as the speaker of the house of commons; the speaker of a house or representatives.

SPE'AKING, participle present tense Uttering words; discoursing; talking.

SPE'AKING, noun

1. The act of uttering words; discourse.

2. In colleges, public declamation.

SPEAR, noun

1. A long pointed weapon, used in war and hunting by thrusting or throwing; a lance.

2. A sharp pointed instrument with barbs; used for stabbing fish and other animals.

3. A shoot, as of grass; usually spire.

SPEAR, verb transitive To pierce with a spear; to kill with a spear; as, to spear a fish.

SPEAR, verb intransitive To shoot into a long stem. [See Spire.]

SPE'ARED, participle passive Pierced or killed with a spear.

SPE'ARING, participle present tense

1. Piercing or killing with a spear.

2. Shooting into a long stem.

SPE'ARMAN, noun [spear and man.] One who is armed with a spear. Psalms 68:1.

SPE'ARMINT, noun [spear and mint.] A plant of the genus Mentha; a species of mint.

SPECHT, SPEIGHT, noun A woodpecker. [Not in use.]

SPE'CIAL, adjective [from Latin specialis, from species, form, figure, sort, from specio, to see. Hence species primarily is appearance, that which is presented to the eye. This word and especial are the same.]

1. Designating a species of sort. A special idea is called by the schools a species.

2. Particular; peculiar; noting something more than ordinary. She smiles with a special grace. Our Savior is represented every where in Scripture as the special patron of the poor and afflicted.

3. Appropriate; designed for a particular purpose. A private grant is made by a special act of parliament or of congress.

4. Extraordinary; uncommon. Our charities should be universal, but chiefly exercised on special opportunities.

5. Chief in excellence. The king hath drawn the special head of all the land together.

SPECIAL ADMINISTRATION, in law, is one in which the power of an administrator is limited to the administration of certain specific effects, and not the effects in general of the deceased.

SPECIAL BAIL, consists of actual sureties recognized to answer for the appearance of person in court; as distinguished from common boil, which is nominal.

SPECIAL BAILIF, is a bailif appointed by the sherif for making

arrests and serving processes.

SPECIAL CONTRACT, [see Specialty.]

SPECIAL DEMURRER, is one in which the cause of demurrer is particularly stated.

SPECIAL IMPARLANCE, is one in which there is a saving of all exceptions to the writ or count, or of all exception whatsoever.

SPECIAL JURY, is one which is called upon motion of either party, when the cause is supposed to require it.

SPECIAL MATTER IN EVIDENCE, the particular facts in the case on which the defendant relies.

SPECIAL PLEA, in bar, is a plea which sets forth the particular facts or reasons why the plaintif's demand should be barred as a release, accord, etc.

SPECIAL PROPERTY, a qualified or limited property, as the property which a man acquires in wild animals by reclaiming them.

SPECIAL SESSION OF A COURT, an extraordinary session; a session beyond the regular stated sessions; or in corporations and counties in England, a petty session held by a few justices for dispatching small business.

SPECIAL STATUE, is a private act of the legislature, such as respects a private act of the legislature, such as respect a private person or individual.

SPECIAL TAIL, is where a gift is restrained to certain hears of the donee's body, and does not descend to the heirs in general.

SPECIAL VERDICT, is a verdict in which the jury find the facts and state them as proved, but leave the law arising from the facts to be determined by the court. Another method of finding a special verdict, is when the jury find a verdict generally for the plaintif, but subject to the opinion of the court on a special case stated by the counsel on both sides, with regard to a matter of law.

SPECIAL WARRENT, a warrant to take a person and bring him before a particular justice who granted the warrant.

SPECIAL, noun A particular. [Not Used.]

SPECIALIZE, verb transitive To mention specially. [Not in use.]

SPECIALLY, adverb

1. Particularly; in a manner beyond what is common, or out of the ordinary course. Every signal deliverance form danger ought to be specially noticed as a divine interposition.

2. For a particular purpose. A meeting of the legislature is specially summoned.

3. Chiefly; specially

SPECIALTY, noun

1. Particularity. specialty of rule hat been neglected.

2. A particular or peculiar case. Note. This word is now little used in the senses above. Its common acceptation is,

3. A special contract; an obligation or bond; the evidence of a debt by deed or instrument under seal. Such a debt is called a debt by specialty in distinction from simple contract.

SPECIE, noun spe'shy. Coin; copper, silver or gold coined and used as a circulating medium of commerce. [See Special.]

SPECIES, noun spe'shiz. [Latin from specio, to see. See Special.]

1. In zoology, a collection of organized beings derived from one common parentage by natural generation, characterized by one peculiar from one common parentage by natural generation, characterized by one peculiar form, liable to vary within certain narrow limits. These accidental and limited variations are varieties. Different races from the same parents are called varieties.

2. In botany, all the plants which spring from the same see, or which resemble each other in certain character or in variable forms. There are as many species as there are different in variable forms or circumstances only with in certain narrow limits. These accidental and limited variations are varieties. Different races from the same parents are called varieties.

3. In logic, a special idea, corresponding to the specific distinctions of things in nature.

4. Sort; kind; in a loose sense; as a species of low cunning in the world; as a species of generosity; a species of cloth.

5. Appearance to the senses; visible or sensible representation. An apparent diversity between the species visible and audible, is that the visible doth not mingle in the medium, but the audible doth. The species of letters illuminated with indigo and violet. [Little used.]

6. Representation to the min. Wit-the faculty of imagination in the writer, which searches over all the memory for the species or ideas of those things which it designs to present. [Little used.]

7. Show; visible exhibition. Shows and species serve best with the common people. [Not in use.]

8. Coin, or coined silver and gold, used as a circulating medium; as the current species of Europe. In modern practice. this word is contracted into specie. What quantity of specie has the bank in its vault? What is the amount of all the current specie in the country? What is the value in specie, of a bill of exchange? We receive payment for goods in specie, not in bank notes.

9. In pharmacy, a simple; a component part of a compound medicine.

10. The old pharmaceutical term for powders.

SPECIF'IC, SPECIF'ICAL, a.

SPECIF'IC, SPECIF'ICAL, adjective

1. That makes a thing of the species of which it is designating the peculiar property of properties of a thing, which constitute its species, and distinguish it from other things. Thus we say, the specific form of an animal or a plant; the specific form of a cube or square; the specific qualities of a plant or a drug; the specific difference between an acid and an alkali; the specific distinction between virtue and vice. Specific difference is that primary attribute which distinguishes each species form one another.

2. In medicine, appropriate for the cure of a particular disease; that certainly cures or is less fallible than others; as a specific remedy for the gout. The Saratogs waters are found to be a specific remedy, or nearly so, for the cure of bilious complaints, so called.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER, in botany, a circumstance or circumstances distinguishing one species from every other species of the same genus.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY, in philosophy, the weight that belongs to an equal bulk of each body. [See Gravity.]

SPECIFIC NAME, in botany, is the trivial name as distinguished form the generic na, e. Specific name is now used for the name which, appended to the name of the genus, constitutes the distinctive name of the species; but it was originally applied by Linne to the essential character of the species, or the essential difference. The present specific names he at fist called the trivial names.

SPECIF'IC, noun In medicine, a remedy that certainly cures particular disease.

SPECIF'ICALLY, adverb In such a manner as to constitute a species; according to the nature of the species. A body is specifically lighter than another, when it has less weight in the same bulk than the other. Human reason-differs specifically from the fantastic reason of brutes. -Those several virtues that are specifically requisite to a due performance of duty.

SPECIFICA'TION, noun

1. The act of determining by a mark or limit; notation of limits. The specification of limitation of the question hinders the disputers from wandering away from the precise point of inquiry.

2. The act of specifying; designation of particulars; particular mention; as the specification of a charge against a military or naval officer.

3. Article or thing specified.

SPEC'IFIED, participle passive Particularized; specially named.

SPEC'IFY, verb transitive To mention or name, as a particular thing; to designate in words so as to distinguish a thing from every other; as, to specify the uses of a plant; to specify the articles one wants to purchase. He has there given us an exact geography of Greece, where the countries and the uses of their soils are specified.

SPEC'IFYING, participle present tense Naming of designating particularly.

SPEC'IMEN, noun [Latin from species, with the termination men, which corresponds in sense to the English hood or ness.] A sample; a part or small portion of any thing, intended to exhibit the kind and quality of the whole, or of something not exhibited; as a specimen of a man's handwriting; a specimen of painting or composition; specimen of one's art or skill.

SPE'CIOUS, adjective [Latin speciosus.]

1. Showy; pleasing to the view. The rest, far greater part will deem in outward rites and specious form religion satisfied.

2. Apparently right; superficially fair, just or correct' plausible; appearing well at first view; as specious reasoning; a specious argument; a specious objection; specious deeds. Temptation is of greater danger, because it is covered with the specious names of good nature, good manners, nobleness of mind, etc.

SPE'CIOUSLY, adverb With a fair appearance; with show of right; as, to reason speciously

SPECK, noun [This word may be formed from peck, for peckled has been used for speckled, spotted as though pecked.]

1. A spot; a stain; a small place in any thing that is discolored by foreign matter, or is of a color different from that of the main substance; as a speck on paper or cloth.

2. A very small thing.

SPECK, verb transitive To spot; to stain in spots or drops.

SPECK'LE, noun A little spot in any thing, of a different substance or color from that of the thing itself.

SPECK'LE, verb transitive To mark with small spots of a different color; used chiefly in the participle passive, which see.

SPECK'LED, participle passive or adjective Marked with specks; variegated with spots of a different color from the ground or surface of the object; as the speckled breast of a bird; a speckled serpent.

SPECKLED BIRD, a denomination given to a person of doubtful character or principles.

SPECK'LEDNESS, noun The state of being speckled.

SPECK'LING, participle present tense Marking with small spots.

SPECK'TACLE, noun [Latin spectaculum, from specto, to behold; specio, to see.]

1. A show; something exhibited to view; usually, something presented to view as extraordinary, or something that is beheld as unusual and worthy of special notice. Thus we call things exhibited for amusement, public spectacles, as the combats of gladiators in ancient Rome. We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. I Cor. 4.

2. Any thing seen ; a sight. A drunkard is a shocking spectacle.

3. Spectacles, in the plural, glasses to assist the sight.

4. Figuratively, something that aids the intellectual sight. Shakespeare needed not the spectacles of books to read nature.

SPEC'TACLED, adjective Furnished with spectacles.

SPECTAC'ULAR, adjective Pertaining to shows.

SPECTA'TION, noun [Latin spectatio.] Regard; respect. [Little used.]

SPECTA'TOR, noun [Latin whence]

1. One that looks on; one that sees or beholds; a beholder; as the spectators of the show.

2. One personally present. The spectators were numerous.

SPECTATO'RIAL, adjective Pertaining to the Spectator.

SPECTA'TORSHIP, noun

1. The act of beholding.

2. The office or quality of a spectator.

SPECTA'TRESS, SPECTA'TRIX, noun [Latin spectatrix.] A female beholder or looker on.

SPECTA'TRESS, SPECTA'TRIX, noun [Latin SPECTATRIX ] A female beholder or looker on.

SPEC'TER, noun [Latin spectrum, from specto, to behold.]

1. An apparition; the appearance of a person who is dead; a ghost. The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend, With bold fanatic specters to rejoice.

2. Something made preternaturally visible.

3. In conchology, a species of voluta, marked with reddish broad bands.

SPEC'TRUM, noun [Latin] A visible form; an image of something seen, continuing after image of something seen, continuing after the eyes are closed, covered or turned away. This is called an ocular spectrum

SPECUA'TION, noun

1. Examination by the eye; view [Little used.]

2. Mental view of any thing in its various aspects and relations; contemplation; intellectual examination. The events of the day afford matter of serious speculation to the friends of christianity. Thenceforth to speculations high or deep. I turn'd my thoughts-

3. Train of thoughts formed by meditation. From him Socrates derived the principles of morality and most part of his natural speculations.

4. Mental scheme; theory; views of a subject not verified by fact or practice. This globe, which was formerly round only in speculation, has been circumnavigated. The application of steam to navigation is no longer a matter of mere speculation. Speculations which originate in guilt, must end in ruin.

5. Power of sight. Thou hast no speculation in those eyes. [Not in use.]

6. In commerce, the act or practice of buying land or goods, etc. in expectation of a rise as distinguished from a regular trade, in which the profit expected is the difference between the retail and wholesale prices, or the difference of price in the place where the good are purchased, and the place to which they are to be carried for market. In England, France and America, public stock is the subject of continual speculation. In the United States, a few men have been enriched, but many have been ruined by speculation.

SPEC'ULAR, adjective [Latin specularis, from speculum, a mirror, from specio, to see.]

1. Having the qualities of a mirror or looking glass; having a smooth reflecting surface; as a specular metal; a specular surface.

2. Assisting sight. [Improper and not used.]

3. Affording view.

SPEC'ULATE, verb intransitive [Latin speculor, to view, to contemplate, from specio, to see.]

1. To meditate; to contemplate; to consider a subject by turning it in the mind and viewing it in its different aspects and relations; as, to speculate on political events; to speculate on the probable results of a discovery.

2. In commerce, to purchase land, goods, stock or other things, with the expectation of an advance in price, and of selling the articles with a profit by means of such advance; as, to speculate in coffee, or in sugar, or in six percent stock, or in bank stock.

SPEC'ULATE, verb transitive To consider attentively; as, to speculate the nature of a thing. [Not in use.]

SPEC'ULATIST, noun One who speculates or forms theories; a speculator.

SPEC'ULATIVE, adjective

1. Given to speculation; contemplative; applied to persons. The min of man being by nature speculative-

2. Formed by speculation; theoretical; ideal; not verified by fact, experiment or practice; as a scheme merely speculative

3. Pertaining to view; also, prying.

SPEC'ULATIVELY, adverb

1. In contemplation; with meditation.

2. Ideally; theoretically; in theory only, not in practice. Propositions seem often to be speculatively true, which experience does not verify.

SPEC'ULATIVENESS, noun The state of being speculative, or of consisting in speculation only.

SPEC'ULATOR, noun

1. One who speculates or forms theories.

2. An observer; a contemplator.

3. A spy; a watcher.

4. In commerce, one who buys goods, land or other thing, with the expectation of a rise of price, and of deriving profit from such advance.

SPEC'ULATORY, adjective

1. Exercising speculation.

2. Intended or adapted for viewing or espying.

SPEC'ULM, noun [Latin]

1. A mirror or looking glass.

2. A glass that reflects the images of objects.

3. A metallic reflector used in catadioptric telescopes.

4. In surgery, an instrument for dilating and keeping open certain parts of the body.

SPED, preterit tense and participle passive of speed.

SPEECH, noun

1. The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words, as in human beings; the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds. speech was given to man by his Creator for the noblest purposes.

2. Language; words as expressing ideas. The acts of God to human ears cannot without process of speech be told.

3. A particular language, as distinct form others. Psalms 19:2.

4. That which is spoken; words uttered in connection and expressing thoughts. You smile at my speech

5. Talk; mention; common saying. The duke did of me demand, what was the speech among the londoners concerning the French journey.

6. Formal discourse in public; oration; harangue. The member has made his first speech in the legislature.

7. Any declaration of thoughts. I, with leave of speech implor'd, repli'd.

SPEECH, verb intransitive To make a speech; to harangue. [Little used.]

SPEE'CHLESS, adjective

1. Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech. More generally,

2. Mute; silent; not speaking for a time. speechless with wonder, and half dead with fear.

SPEE'CHLESSNESS, noun The state of being speechless; muteness.

SPEED, verb intransitive preterit tense and participle passive sped, speeded. [The Latin expedio may be from the same root, which signifies to drive, to hurry, of the family of Latin peto.]

1. To make haste; to move with celerity.

2. To have success; to prosper; to succeed; that is, to advance in one's enterprise. He that's once demi'd will hardly speed Those that profaned and abused the second temple, sped no better.

3. To have any condition good or ill; to fare. Ships heretofore in seas like fishes sped, The mightiest still upon the smallest fed.

SPEED, verb transitive

1. TO dispatch; to send away in haste. He sped him thence home to his habitation.

2. To hasten; to hurry; to put in quick motion. -But sped his steps along the hoarse resounding shore.

3. TO hasten to a conclusion; to execute; to dispatch; as, to speed judicial acts.

4. To assist; to help forward; to hasten. -With rising gales that sped their happy flight.

5. To prosper; to cause to succeed. May heaven speed this undertaking.

6. To furnish in haste.

7. To dispatch; to kill; to ruin; to destroy. With a speeding thrust his heart he found. A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped; If foes, they write if friends they read me dead.

Note In the phrase, 'God speed ' there is probably a gross mistake in considering it as equivalent to 'may God give you success.' The true phrase is probably 'good speed; good, in Saxon, being written god. I bid you or wish you good speed that is, good success.

SPEED, noun

1. Swiftness; quickness; celerity; applied to animals. We say, a man or a horse runs or travels with speed; a fowl flies with speed We speak of the speed of a fish in the water, but we do not speak of the speed of a river, or of wind, or of a falling body. I think however I have seen the word applied to the lapse of time and the motion of lightning, but in poetry only.

2. Haste; dispatch; as, to perform a journey with speed; to execute an order with speed

3. Rapid pace; as a horse of speed We say also, high speed full speed

4. Success; prosperity in an undertaking; favorable issue; that is, advance to the desired end. O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. Genesis 24:12. This use is retained in the proverb, 'to make more haste than good speed ' and in the Scriptural phrase, 'to bid one good speed ' [Not God speed as erroneously written.]

SPEEDILY, adverb Quickly; with haste; in a short time. Send speedily to Bertram.

SPEE'DINESS, noun The quality of being speedy; quickness; celerity; haste; dispatch.

SPEE'DWELL, noun A plant of the genus Veronica.

SPEE'DY, adjective

1. Quick; swift; nimble; hasty; rapid in motion; as a speedy flight; on speedy foot.

2. Quick in performance; not dilatory or slow; as a speedy dispatch of business.

SPEET, verb transitive [from the root of spit.] To stab. [Not in use.]

SPEIGHT, noun A wood pecker. [Not in use.]

SPELK, noun A splinter; a small stick or rod used in thatching.

SPELL, noun [The verb primarily signifies to throw or drive, and is probably formed on the root of Latin pello. In some of the application of spell we observe the sense of turn. We observe the same in throw, warp, cant, etc.]

1. A story; a tale.

2. A charm consisting of some words of occult power. Start not; her actions shall be holy; you hear my speel is lawful. Begin, begin; the mystic spell prepare.

3. A turn of work; relief; turn of duty. Take a spell at the pump. Their toil is so extreme, that they cannot endure it above four hours in a day, but are succeed by spells.

4. In New England, a short time; a little time. [Not elegant.]

5. A turn of gratuitous labor, sometimes accompanied with presents. People give their neighbors a spell

SPELL, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive spelled or spelt.

1. To tell or name the letters of a word, with a proper division of syllables, for the with a proper division of syllables, for the purpose of learning the pronunciation. In this matter children learn to read by first spelling the words.

2. To write or print with the proper letters; to form words by correct orthography. The word satire ought to be spelled with i, and not with y.

3. To take another's place or turn temporarily in any labor or service. [This is a popular use of the word in New England.]

4. To charm; as spelled with words of power.

5. To read; to discover by characters or marks; with out; as, to speel out the sense of an author. We are not left to spell out a God in the works of creation.

6. To tell; to relate; to teach. [Not in use.]

SPELL, verb intransitive

1. To form words with the proper letters, either in reading or writing. He knows not how to spell Our orthography is so irregular that most persons never learn to spell

2. To read.

SPELL'ED, SPELT, preterit tense and participle passive of spell.

SPELL'ER, noun One that spells; one skilled in spelling.

SPELL'ING, participle present tense

1. Naming the letters of a word, or writing them; forming words with their proper letters.

2. Taking another's turn.

SPELL'ING, noun

1. The act of naming the letters of a word, or the act of writing or printing words with their proper letters.

2. Orthography; the manner of forming words with letters. Bad spelling is disreputable to a gentleman.

SPELT, noun A species of grain of the genus Triticum; called also German wheat.

SPELT, verb transitive To split. [Not in use.]

SPEL'TER, noun Common zink, which contains a portion of lead, copper, iron, a little arsenic, manganese and plumbago.

SPENCE, noun spens. A buttery; a larder; a place where provisions are kept.

SPEN'CER, noun

1. One who has the care of the spence or buttery.

2. A kind of short coat.

SPEND, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive spent. [Latin expendo; from the root of Latin pando, pendeo, the primary sense of which is to strain, to open or spread; allied to span, pane, etc.]

1. To lay out; to dispose of; to part with; as, to spend money for clothing. Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread? Isaiah 55:2.

2. To consume; to waste; to squander; as to spend an estate in gaming or other vices.

3. To consume; to exhaust. The provisions were spent, and the troops were in want.

4. To bestow for any purpose; often with on or upon. It is folly to spend words in debate on trifles.

5. To effuse. [Little used.]

6. To pass, as time; to suffer to pass away. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Job 13:1.

7. To lay out; to exert or to waste; to wear away; as, to spend one's strength.

8. To exhaust of force; to waste; to wear away; as, a ball had spend its force. The violence of the waves was spent. Heaps of spent arrows fall and strew the ground.

9. To exhaust of strength; to harass; to fatigue. Their bodies spent with long labor and thirst-

SPEND, verb intransitive

1. To make expense; to make disposition of money. He spends like a prudent man.

2. To be lost or wasted; to vanish; to be dissipated. The sound spendeth and is dissipated in the open air.

3. To prove in the use. -Butter spent as if it cam from the richer soil.

4. To be consumed. Candles spend fast in a current of air Our provision spend rapidly.

5. To be employed to any use. The vines they use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendeth into the grapes. [Unusual.]

SPEND'ER, noun One that spends; also, a prodigal; a lavisher.

SPEND'ING, participle present tense Laying out; consuming; wasting; exhausting.

SPEND'THRIFT, noun [spend and thrift.] One who spends money profusely or improvidently; a prodigal; one who lavishes his estate.

SPE'RABLE, adjective [Latin sperabilis, from spero, to hope.] That may be hoped. [Not in use.]

SPER'ICALLY, adverb In the form of a sphere.

SPER'ICALNESS, SPERIC'ITY, noun The state or quality of being orbicular or spherical; roundness; as the sphericity of a drop of water.

SPER'ICALNESS, SPERIC'ITY, noun The state or quality of being orbicular or spherical; roundness; as the sphericity of a drop of water.

SPERM, noun [Latin sperma.]

1. Animal seed; that by which the species is propagated.

2. The head matter of a certain species of whale, called cachalot. It is called by the French blanc de baleine, the white of whales. It is found also in other parts of the body; but it is improperly named, not being a spermatic substance. Of this matter are mad candles of a beautiful white color.

3. Spawn of fishes or frogs.

SPERMACE'TO, noun [Latin sperma, sperm and cetus, a whale. It is pronounced as it is written.] The same as sperm

SPERMAT'IC, adjective

1. Consisting of seed; seminal.

2. Pertaining to the semen, or conveying it; as spermatic vessels.

SPERM'ATIZE, verb intransitive To yield seed. [Not in use.]

SPERMAT'OCELE, noun A swelling of the spermatic vessels, or vessels of the testicles.

SPERSE, verb transitive To disperse. [Not in use.]

SPET, verb transitive To spit; to throw out. [Not in use.]

SPET, noun Spittle, or a flow. [Not in use.]

SPEW, verb transitive [Latin spuo.]

1. To vomit; to puke; to eject from the stomach.

2. To eject; to cast forth.

3. To cast out with abhorrence. Leviticus 18:1.

SPEW, verb intransitive To vomit; to discharge the contents of the stomach.

SPEW'ED, participle passive Vomited; ejected.

SPEW'ER, noun One who spews.

SPEW'ING, participle present tense Vomiting; ejecting from the stomach.

SPEW'Y, adjective Wet; foggy.

SPHAC'ELATE, verb intransitive [See Sphacelus.]

1. To mortify; to become gangrenous; as flesh.

2. To decay or become carious, as a bone.

SPHAC'ELATE, verb transitive To affect with gangrene.

SPHAC'ELUS, noun

1. In medicine and surgery, gangrene; mortification of the flesh of a living animal.

2. Caries or decay of a bone.

SPHACLA'TION, noun The process of becoming or making gangrenous; mortification.

SPHAG'NOUS, adjective [shagnum, bog-moss. Linne.] Pertaining to bog-moss; mossy.

SPHENE, noun A mineral composed of nearly equal parts of oxyd of titanium, silex and lime. Its colors are commonly grayish, yellowish, redish and blackish brown, and various shades of green. It is found amorphous and in crystals.

SPHENOID, SPHENOID'AL, adjective Resembling a wedge. The spenoid bone, is the pterygoid bone of the basis of the skull.

SPHENOID, SPHENOID'AL, adjective Resembling a wedge. The spenoid bone, is the pterygoid bone of the basis of the skull.

SPHERE, noun [Latin sphera.]

1. In geometry, a solid body contained under a single surface, which in every part is equally distant from a point called its center. The earth is not an exact sphere The sun appears to be a sphere

2. An orb or globe of the mundane system. First the sun, a mighty sphere he fram'd. Then mortal ears had heard the music of the spheres.

3. An orbicular body, or a circular figure representing the earth or apparent heavens.

4. Circuit of motion; revolution; orbit; as the diurnal sphere

5. The concave or vast orbicular expanse in which the heavenly orbs appear.

6. Circuit of action, knowledge or influence; compass; province; employment. Every man has his particular sphere of action, in which it should be his ambition to excel. Events of this kind have repeatedly fallen within the sphere of my knowledge. This man treats of matters not within his sphere

7. Rank; order of society. Persons moving in a higher sphere claim more deference.

SPHERE OF ACTIVITY of a body, the whole space or extent reached by the effluvia emitted from it.

A RIGHT SPHERE, that aspect of the heavens in which the circles of daily motion of the heavenly bodies, are perpendicular to the horizon. A spectator at the equator views a right sphere

A PARALLEL SPHERE, that in which the circles of daily motion are parallel to the horizon. A spectator at either of the poles, would view a parallel sphere

AN OBLIQUE SPHERE, that in which the circles of daily motion are oblique to the horizon. as is the case to a spectator at any point between the equator and either pole.

ARMILLARY SPHERE, an artificial representation of the circles of the sphere by means of brass rings.

SPHERE, verb transitive

1. To place in a sphere The glorious planet Sol in novel eminence enthron'd, and spher'd amidst the res. [Unusual.]

2. To form into roundness; as light sphered in a radiant cloud.

SPHER'IC, SPHER'ICAL, adjective [Latin sphericus.]

SPHER'IC, SPHER'ICAL, adjective [Latin sphericus.]

1. Globular; orbicular; having a surface in every part equally distant from the center; as a SPHERICAL body. Drops of water take a SPHERICAL form.

2. Planetary; relating to the orbs of the planets. We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon and the stars, as if we were villains by SPHERICAL predominance.

SPHERICAL GEOMETRY. that branch of geometry which teats of SPHERICAL magnitudes.

SPHERICAL TRIANGLE, a triangle formed by the mutual intersection of three great circles of the sphere.

SPHERICAL TRIGONOMETRY, that branch of trigonometry which teaches to compute the sides and angles of SPHERICAL triangles.

SPHER'ICS, noun The doctrine of the sphere.

SPHEROID,

n. [sphere and form.] A body or figure approaching to a sphere, but not perfectly spherical. A spheroid is oblate or prolate. The earth is found to be a oblate spheroid that is, flatted at the poles, whereas some astronomers formerly supposed it to be prolate or oblong.

SPHEROID'AL, SPHEROID'IC, SPHEROID'ICAL, adjective

SPHEROID'AL, SPHEROID'IC, SPHEROID'ICAL, adjective

SPHEROID'AL, SPHEROID'IC, SPHEROID'ICAL, adjective

1. Having the form of a sheriod.

2. In crystalography, bounded by several convex faces.

SPHEROID'ITY, noun The state or quality of being spheroidal.

SPHEROSID'ERITE, noun A substance found in the basaltic compact lava of Steinheim; called also glass lava or hyatite.

SPHER'ULE, noun [Latin spharula.] A little sphere or spherical body. Mercury or quicksilver when poured upon a plane, divides itself into a great number of minute spherules.

SPHER'ULITE, noun A variety of obsidian or pearl-stone, found in rounded grains.

SPHE'RY, adjective

1. Belonging to the sphere.

2. Round; spherical.

SPHINC'TER, noun In anatomy, a muscle that contracts or shuts; as the sphincter labiorum; sphincter vesica.

SPHINX, noun [Latin sphinx ]

1. A famous monster in Egypt, having the body of a lion and the face of a young woman.

2. In entomology, the hawk-moth, a genus of insects.

SPHRAG'ID, noun A species of ocherous clay which falls to pieces in water with the emission of many bubbles; called also earth of Lemons.

SPIAL, noun A spy; a scout. [Not in use.]

SPI'CATE, adjective [Latin spicatus, from spica, a spike.] Having a spike or ear.

SPICE, noun

1. A vegetable production, fragrant or aromatic to the smell and pungent to the taste; used in sauces and in cookery.

2. A small quantity; something that enriches or alters the quality of a thing in a small degree, as spice alters the taste of a thing.

3. A sample.

SPICE, verb transitive

1. To season with spice; to mix aromatic substances with; as, to spice wine.

2. To tincture; as the spiced Indian air.

3. To render nice; to season with scruples.

SPI'CED, participle passive Seasoned with spice.

SPI'CER, noun

1. One that seasons with spice.

2. One that deals in spice.

SPI'CERY, noun

1. Spices in general; fragrant and aromatic vegetable substances used in seasoning.

2. A repository of spices.

SPICK AND SPAN, bright; shining; as a garment spick and span new, or span-new. brightness; spiccare, to shine; spiccar le parole, to speak distinctly; spicciare, to rush out, the radical sense of which is to shoot or dart. Span is probably from the root of spangle, a mirror.

SPICK'NEL, SPIG'NEL, noun The herb maldmony or bear wort. the Athamanta Meum, Ethusa Meum.

SPICOS'ITY, noun [Latin spica.] The state of having or being full of ears, like corn. [Not in use.]

SPIC'ULAR, adjective [Latin spiculum, a dart.] Resembling a dart; having sharp points.

SPIC'ULATE, verb transitive [Latin spiculo, to sharpen, from spiculum, a dart, from spica, or its root. See Spike.] To sharpen to a point.

SPI'CY, adjective [from spice.]

1. Producing spice; abounding with spices; as the spicy shore of Arabia.

2. Having the qualities of spice; fragrant; aromatic; as spicy plants. Led by new stars and borne by spicy gales.

SPI'DER, noun [I know not from what source this word is derived.] The common name of the insects of the genus Aranea, remarkable for spinning webs for taking their prey and forming a convenient habitation, and for the deposit of their food. The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!

SPI'DERLIKE, adjective Resembling a spider.

SPI'DERWORT, noun A plant of the genus Anthericum.

SPIG'NEL. [See Spicknel.]

SPIG'OT, noun A pin or peg used to stop a faucet, or to stop a small hole in a cask of liquor.

SPIKE, noun [Latin Latin spica, and ear of corn. It signifies a shoot or point.]

1. A large uail; always in American applied to a nail or pin of metal. A similar thing made of word is called a peg or pin. In England, it is sometimes used for a sharp point of wood.

2. An ear of corn or grain. It is applied to the heads of wheat, rye and barley; and is particularly applicable to the ears of maiz.

3. A shoot.

4. [Latin spica.] In botany, a species of inflorescence, in which sessile flowers are alternate on a common simple peduncle, as in wheat and rye, lavender, etc.

SPIKE, noun A smaller species of lavender.

SPIKE, verb transitive

1. To fasten with spikes or long and large nails; as, to spike down the planks of a floor or bridge.

2. To set with spikes. A youth leaping over the spiked pales-was caught by the spikes. [Unusual.]

3. To stop the vent with spikes; as, to spike cannon.

SPI'KED, participle passive Furnished with spikes, as corn; fastened with spikes; stopped with spikes.

SPI'KELET, noun In botany, a small spike of a large one; or a subdivision of a spike.

SPIKENARD, noun spik'nard. [Latin spica nardi.]

1. A plant of the genus Nardus.

2. The oil of balsam procured from the spikenard

SPI'KING, participle present tense Fastening with spikes; stopping with large nails.

SPI'KY, adjective Having a sharp point.

SPILE, noun [Latin pilus, pilum, etc.]

1. A small peg or wooden pin, used to stop a hole.

2. A stake driven into the ground to protect a bank, etc.

SPILL, noun [a different orthography of spile, supra.]

1. A small peg or pin for stopping a cask; as a vent hole stopped with a spill

2. A little bar or pin of iron.

3. A little sum of money. [Not in use.]

SPILL, verb transitive preterit tense spilled or spilt; participle passive id.

1. To suffer to fall or run out of a vessel; to lose to suffer to be scattered; applied only to fluids and to substances whose particles are small and loose. Thus we spill water from a pail; we spill spirit or oil from a bottle; we spill quicksilver or powders form a vessel or a paper; we spill sand or flour.

2. To suffer to be shed; as, a man spills his own blood.

3. To cause to flow out or lose; to shed; as, a man spills another's blood. [This is applied to cases of murder or other homicide, but not to venesection. In the later case we say, to let or take blood.]

4. To mischief; to destroy; as, to spill the mind or soul; to spill glory; to spill forms, etc. [This application is obsolete and now improper.]

5. TO throw away.

6. In seamen's language, to discharge the wind out of the cavity or belly of a sail.

SPILL, verb intransitive

1. To waste; to be prodigal. [Not in use.]

2. TO be shed; to be suffered to fall, he lost or wasted. He was so topfull of himself, that he let it spill on all the company.

SPILL'ED, participle passive Suffered to fall, as liquids; shed.

SPILL'ER, noun

1. One that spills or sheds.

2. A kind of fishing line.

SPILL'ING, participle present tense Suffering to fall or run out, as liquids; shedding.

SPILT, preterit tense and participle passive of spill.

SPILTH, noun [from spill.] Any thing spilt. [Not in use.]

SPIN, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive spun. Span is not used. [If the sense is to draw out or extend, this coincides in origin with span.]

1. To draw out and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton or flax; to spin goats' hair. All the yarn which Penelope spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca with moths.

2. To draw out tediously; to form by a slow process of be degrees; with out; as, to spin out large volumes on a subject.

3. To extend to a great length; as, to spin out a subject.

4. To draw out; to protract; to spend by delays; as, to spin out the day in the idleness By one delay after another, they spin out their whole lives.

5. To whirl with a thread; to turn or cause to whirl; as, to spin a top.

6. To draw out from the stomach in a filament; as, a spider spins a web.

TO spin HAY, in military language, is to twist it into ropes for convenient carriage on an expedition.

SPIN, v.il.

1. To practice spinning; to work at drawing and twisting threads; as, the woman knows how to spin They neither know to spin nor car to toil.

2. To perform the act of drawing and twisting threads; as, a machine or jenny spins with great exactness.

3. To move round rapidly; to whirl; as a top or a spindle.

4. To stream or issue in a thread or small current; as, blood spins from a vein.

SPIN'ACH, SPIN'AGE, noun [Latin spinacia.] A plant of the genus Spinacia.

SPIN'ACH, SPIN'AGE, noun [Latin spinacia.] A plant of the genus Spinacia.

SPI'NAL, adjective [See Spine.] Pertaining to the spine or back bone of an animal; as the spinal marrow; spinal muscles; spinal arteries.

SPIN'DLE, adjective [See Spin.]

1. The pin used in spinning wheels for twisting the thread, and on which the thread when twisted, is wound.

2. A slender pointed rod or pin on which any thing turn; as the spindle of a vane.

3. The fusee of a watch.

4. A long slender stalk.

5. The lower end of a capstan, shod with iron; the pivot.

SPIN'DLE, verb intransitive To shoot or grow in a long slender stalk or body.

SPINE, noun [Latin]

1. The back bone of an animal.

2. The shin of the leg.

3. A thorn; a sharp process from the woody part of a plant. It differs from a prickle, which proceeds form the bark. A spine which proceeds from the bark. A spine sometimes terminates a branch or a leaf, and sometimes is axillary, growing at the angle formed by the branch or leaf with the stem. The wild apple and pear are armed with thorns; the rose, bramble, gooseberry. etc. are armed with prickles.

SPI'NEL, SPINELLE, noun The spinelle ruby, says Hauy; is the true ruby, a gem of a red color, blended with tints of blue or yellow. It is in grains more or less crystalized. A subspecies of octahedral corundum.

SPINELLANE, noun A mineral occurring in small crystaline masses and in minute crystals. It has been found only near the lake of Laach.

SPI'NEL, SPINELLE noun The SPINELLE ruby, says Hauy; is the true ruby, a gem of a red color, blended with tints of blue or yellow. It is in grains more or less crystalized. A subspecies of octahedral corundum.

SPINES'CENT, adjective [from spine.] Becoming hard and thorny.

SPIN'ET, noun An instrument of music resembling a harpsichord, but smaller; a virginal; a clavichord.

SPIN'ET, noun [Latin spinetum.] A small wood or place where briars and thorns grow. [Not in use.]

SPINIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin spina, spine, and fero, to bear.] Producing spines; bearing thorns.

SPINK, noun A bird; a finch.

SPIN'NER, noun

1. One that spins; one skilled in spinning.

2. A spider.

SPIN'NING, participle present tense Drawing out and twisting into threads; drawing out; delaying.

SPIN'NING, noun

1. The act, practice or art of drawing out and twisting into threads, as wool, flax and cotton.

2. The act or practice of forming webs, as spiders.

SPIN'OLET, noun A small bird of the lark kind.

SPINOS'ITY, noun The state of being spiny or thorny; crabbedness.

SPI'NOUS, adjective [Latin spinosus, from spina.] Full of spines; armed with thorns; thorny.

SPI'NOZISM, noun The doctrines or principles of Spinoza, a native of Amsterdam, consisting in atheism and pantheism, or naturalism and hulotheism, which allows of no God but nature or the universe.

SPIN'STER, noun [spin and ster.]

1. A woman who spins, or whose occupation is to spin. Hence,

2. In law, the common title by which a woman without rank or distinction is designated. If a gentlewoman is termed a spinster she may abate the writ.

SPIN'STRY, noun The business of spinning.

SPIN'THERE, noun A mineral of a greenish gray color.

SPI'NY, adjective [from spine.]

1. Full of spines; thorny; as a spiny tree.

2. Perplexed; difficult; troublesome.

SPIR'ACLE, noun [Latin spiraculum, form spiro, to breathe.]

1. A small aperture in animal and vegetable bodies, by which air or other fluid is exhaled or inhaled; a small hole, orifice or vent; a pore; a minute passage; as the spiracles of the human skin.

2. Any small aperture, hole or vent.

SPI'RAL, adjective [Latin spira, a spire.] Winding round a cylinder or other round body, or in a circular form, and at the same time rising or advancing forward; winding like a screw. The magnificent column in the Place Vendeme, at Paris, is divided by a spiral line into compartments. It is formed with spiral compartments, on which are engraved figures emblematical of the victories of the French armies. A whirlwind is so named from the spiral motion of the air. Water in a tunnel descends in a spiral form.

SPI'RALLY, adverb In a spiral form or direction; in the manner of a screw.

SPIRA'TION, noun [Latin spiratio.] A breathing. [Not used.]

SPIRE, noun [Latin spira; from the root of Latin spiro, to breathe. The primary sense of the root is to throw, to drive, to send, but it implies a winding motion, like throw, warp, and many others.]

1. A winding line like the threads of a screw; any thing wreathed or contorted; a curl; a twist; a wreath. His neck erect amidst his circling spires. A dragon's fiery form belied the god; sublime on radiant spires he rode.

2. A body that shoots up to a point; a tapering body; a round pyramid or pyramidical body; a steeple. With glist'ring spires and pinnacles adorn'd.

3. A stalk or blade of grass or other plant. How humble ought man to be, who cannot make a single spire or grass.

4. The top or uppermost point of a thing.

SPIRE, verb intransitive

1. To shoot; to shoot up pyramidically.

2. To breathe. [Not in use.]

3. To sprout, as grain in malting.

SPI'RED, adjective Having a spire.

SPIR'IT, noun [Latin spiritus, from spiro, to breathe, to blow. The primary sense is to rush or drive.]

1. Primarily, wind; air in motion; hence, breath. All bodies have spirits and pneumatical parts within them. [This sense is now unusual.]

2. Animal excitement, or the effect of it; life; ardor; fire; courage; elevation or vehemence of mind. The troops attacked the enemy with great spirit The young man has the spirit of youth. He speaks or act with spirit Spirits, in the plural, is used in nearly a like sense. The troops began to recover their spirits.

3. Vigor of intellect; genius. His wit, his beauty and his spirit The noblest spirit or genius cannot deserve enough of mankind to pretend to the esteem of heroic virtue.

4. Temper; disposition of mind, habitual or temporary; as a man of a generous spirit or of a revengeful spirit; the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit Let us go to the house of God in the spirit of prayer.

5. The soul of man; the intelligent, immaterial and immortal part of human beings. [See Soul.] the spirit shall return to God that gave it. Eceles. 12.

6. An immaterial intelligent substance. spirit is a substance in which thinking, knowing, doubting, and a power of moving do subsist. Hence,

7. An immaterial intelligent being. By which he went and preached to the spirit in prison. I Pet. 3. God is a spirit John 4:23.

8. Turn of mind; temper; occasions; state of the mind. A perfect judge will read each work of wit, with the same spirit that its author writ.

9. Powers of mind distinct from the body. In spirit perhaps he also saw Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume.

10. Sentiment; perception. You spirit is too true, your fears too certain.

11. Eager desire; disposition of mind excited and directed to a particular object. God has made a spirit of building succeed a spirit of pulling down.

12. A person of activity; a man of life, vigor or enterprise. The watery kingdom is no bar to stop the foreign spirits, but they come.

13. Persons distinguished by qualities of the mind. Such spirits as he desired to please, such would I choose for my judges.

14. Excitement of mind; animation; cheerfulness; usually in the plural. We found our friend in very good spirits. He has a great flow of spirits. -To sing thy praise, would heaven my breath prolong, Infusing spirits worthy such a song.

15. Life or strength of resemblance; essential qualities; as, to set off the face in its true spirit The copy has not the spirit of the original.

16. Something eminently pure and refined. Nor doth the eye itself, that most pure spirit of sense, behold itself.

17. That which hath power or energy; the quality of any substance which manifest life, activity, or the power of strongly affecting other bodies; as the spirit of wine or of any liquor.

18. A strong, pungent or stimulation liquor, usually obtained by distillation, as rum, brandy, gin, whiskey. In America, spirit used without other words explanatory of its meaning, signifies the liquor distilled from cane-juice, or rum. We say, new spirit or old spirit Jamaica spirit etc.

19. An apparition; a ghost.

20. The renewed nature of man. Matthew 26:41. Galatians 5:5.

21. The influences of the Holy spirit Matthew 22:43.

HOLY SPIRIT, the third person in the Trinity.

SPIRIT, verb transitive

1. To animate; to actuate; as a spirit

So talkd the spirited sly snake. [Little used.]

2. To animate with vigor; to excite; to encourage; as, civil dissensions spirit the ambition of private man.

It is sometimes followed by up; as, to spirit up.

3. To kidnap.

To spirit away, to entice or seduce.

SPIRITALLY, adverb By means of the breath. [Not in use.]

SPIRITED, participle passive

1. Animated; encouraged; incited.

2. adjective Animated; full of life; lively; full of spirit or fire; as a spirited address or oration; a spirited answer. It is used in composition, noting the state of the mind; as in high-spirited, low-spirited, mean-spirited.

SPIRITEDLY, adverb In a lively manner; with spirit; with strength; with animation.

SPIRITEDNESS, noun

1. Life; animation.

2. Disposition or make of mind; used in compounds; as high-spiritedness, low-spiritedness, mean-spiritedness, narrow-spiritedness.

SPIRITFUL, adjective Lively; full of spirit. [Not used.]

SPIRITFULLY, adverb In a lively manner. [Not used.]

SPIRITFULNESS, noun Liveliness; sprightliness. [Not used.]

SPIRITLESS, adjective

1. Destitute of spirits; wanting animation; wanting cheerfulness; dejected; depressed.

2. Destitute of vigor; wanting life, courage or fire; as a spiritless slave.

A man so faint, so spiritless so dull, so dead in look--

3. Having no breath; extinct; dead.

SPIRITLESSLY, adverb Without spirit; without exertion.

SPIRITLESSNESS, noun Dullness; want of life or vigor.

SPIRITOUS, adjective

1. Like spirit; refined; defecated; pure.

More refind, more spiritous and pure.

2. Fine ardent; active.

SPIRITOUSNESS, noun A refined state; fineness and activity of parts; as the thinness and spiritousness of liquor.

SPIRITUAL, adjective

1. Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal; as a spiritual substance or being. The soul of man is spiritual

2. Mental; intellectual; as spiritual armor.

3. Not gross; refined from external things; not sensual; relative to mind only; as a spiritual and refined religion.

4. Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical; as the spiritual functions of the clergy; the lords spiritual and temporal; a spiritual corporation.

5. Pertaining to spirit or to the affections; pure; holy.

Gods law is spiritual; it is a transcript of the divine nature, and extends its authority to the acts of the soul of man.

6. Pertaining to the renewed nature of man; as spiritual life.

7. Not fleshly; not material; as spiritual sacrifices. 1 Peter 2:5.

8. Pertaining to divine things; as spiritual songs. Ephesians 5:19.

SPIRITUAL court, an ecclesiastical court; a court held by a bishop or other ecclesiastic.

SPIRITUALITY, noun

1. Essence distinct from matter; immateriality.

If this light be not spiritual, it approacheth nearest to spirituality

2. Intellectual nature; as the spirituality of the soul.

3. Spiritual nature; the quality which respects the spirit or affections of the heart only, and the essence of true religion; as the spirituality of Gods law.

4. Spiritual exercises and holy affections.

Much of our spirituality and comfort in public worship depend on the state of mind in which we come.

5. That which belongs to the church, or to a person as an ecclesiastic, or to religion; as distinct from temporalities.

During the vacancy of a see, the archbishop is guardian of the spiritualities thereof.

6. An ecclesiastical body. [Not in use.]

SPIRITUALIZATION, noun The act of spiritualizing. In chemistry, the operation of extracting spirit from natural bodies.

SPIRITUALIZE, verb intransitive

1. To refine the intellect; to purify from the feculences of the world; as, to spiritualize the soul.

2. In chemistry, to extract spirit from natural bodies.

3. To convert to a spiritual meaning.

SPIRITUALLY, adverb Without corporeal grossness or sensuality; in a manner conformed to the spirit of true religion; with purity of spirit or heart.

SPIRITUALLY minded, under the influence of the Holy Spirit or of holy principles; having the affections refined and elevated above sensual objects, and placed on God and his law. Romans 8:6.

SPIRITUALLY discerned, known, not by carnal reason, but by the peculiar illumination of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:14.

SPIRITUOUS, adjective

1. Containing spirit; consisting of refined spirit; ardent; as spirituous liquors. [This might well be written spiritous.]

2. Having the quality of spirit; fine; pure; active; as the spirituous part of a plant.

3. Lively; gay; vivid; airy. [Not in use.]

SPIRITUOUSNESS, noun

1. The quality of being spirituous; ardor; heat; stimulating quality; as the spirituousness of liquors.

2. Life; tenuity; activity.

SPIRT. [See Spurt, the more correct orthography.]

SPIRY, adjective

1. Of a spiral form; wreathed; curled; as the spiry volumes of a serpent.

2. Having the form of a pyramid; pyramidical; as spiry turrets.

SPISS, adjective [Latin] Thick; close; dense. [Not in use.]

SPISSITUDE, noun [supra.] Thickness of soft substances; the denseness or compactness which belongs to substances not perfectly liquid nor perfectly solid; as the spissitude of coagulated blood or of any coagulum.

SPIT, noun [G.]

1. An iron prong or bar pointed, on which meat is roasted.

2. Such depth of earth as is pierced by the spade at once. [D. spit a spade.]

3. A small point of land running into the sea, or a long narrow shoal extending from the shore into the sea; as a spit of sand.

SPIT, verb transitive [from the noun.]

1. To thrust a spit through; to put upon a spit; as, to spit a loin of veal.

2. To thrust through; to pierce.

SPIT, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive spit Spat is obsolete. [G. The sense is to throw or drive.]

1. To eject from the mouth; to thrust out, as saliva or other matter from the mouth.

2. To eject or throw out with violence.

SPIT, verb intransitive To throw out saliva from the mouth. It is a dirty trick to spit on the floor or carpet.

SPIT, noun What is ejected from the mouth; saliva.

SPITAL, SPITTEL, noun Corrupted from hospital. Rob not the spital or charitable foundation. [Vulgar and not in use.]

SPITCHCOCK, verb transitive To split an eel lengthwise and broil it.

SPITCHCOCK, noun An eel split and broiled.

SPITE, noun [Latin] Hatred; rancor; malice; malignity; malevolence.

SPITE, however, is not always synonymous with these words. It often denotes a less deliberate and fixed hatred than malice and malignity, and is often a sudden fit of ill will excited by temporary vexation. It is the effect of extreme irritation, and is accompanied with a desire of revenge, or at least a desire to vex the object of ill will.

Be gone, ye critics, and restrain your spite; Codrus writes on, and will for ever write.

In spite of, in opposition to all efforts; in defiance or contempt of. Sometimes spite of is used without in, but not elegantly. It is often used without expressing any malignity of meaning.

Whom God made use of to speak a word in season, and saved me in spite of the world, the devil and myself.

In spite of all applications, the patient grew worse every day.

To owe one a spite to entertain a temporary hatred for something.

SPITE, verb transitive

1. To be angry or vexed at.

2. To mischief; to vex; to treat maliciously; to thwart.

3. To fill with spite or vexation; to offend; to vex.

Darius, spited at the Magi, endeavored to abolish not only their learning but their language. [Not used.]

SPITED, participle passive Hated; vexed.

SPITEFUL, adjective Filled with spite; having a desire to vex, annoy or injure; malignant; malicious.

--A wayward son, spiteful and wrathful.

SPITEFULLY, adverb With a desire to vex, annoy or injure; malignantly; maliciously.

SPITEFULNESS, noun The desire to vex, annoy or mischief, proceeding from irritation; malice; malignity.

It looks more like spitefulness and ill nature, than a diligent search after truth.

SPITTED, participle passive [from spit.]

1. Put upon a spit.

2. Shot out into length.

SPITAL, SPITTEL noun Corrupted from hospital. Rob not the spital, or charitable foundation. [Vulgar and not in use.]

SPITTER, noun

1. One that puts meat on a spit.

2. One who ejects saliva from his mouth.

3. A young deer whose horns begin to shoot or become sharp; a brocket or pricket.

SPITTING, participle present tense

1. Putting on a spit.

2. Ejecting saliva from the mouth.

SPITTLE, noun [from spit.]

1. Saliva; the thick moist matter which is secreted by the salivary glands and ejected from the mouth.

2. A small sort of spade. [spaddle.]

SPITTLE. [See Spital.]

SPITTLE, verb transitive To dig or stir with a small spade. [Local.]

SPITVENOM, noun [spit and venom.] Poison ejected from the mouth.

SPLANCHNOLOGY, noun [Gr., bowels, discourse.]

1. The doctrine of the viscera; or a treatise or description of the viscera.

2. The doctrine of diseases of the internal parts of the body.

SPLASH, verb transitive [formed on plash.] To spatter with water, or with water and mud.

SPLASH, verb intransitive To strike and dash about water.

SPLASH, noun Water or water and dirt thrown upon any thing, or thrown from a puddle and the like.

SPLASHY, adjective Full of dirty water; wet; wet and muddy.

SPLAY, verb transitive [See Display.]

1. To dislocate or break a horses shoulder bone.

2. To spread. [Little used.]

SPLAY, for display. [Not in use.]

SPLAY, adjective Displayed; spread; turned outward.

SPLAYFOOT, SPLAYFOOTED, adjective Having the foot turned outward; having a wide foot.

SPLAYFOOT, SPLAYFOOTED adjective Having the foot turned outward; having a wide foot.

SPLAYMOUTH, noun A wide mouth; a mouth stretched by design.

SPLEEN, noun [Latin , Gr.]

1. The milt; a soft part of the viscera of animals, whose use is not well understood. The ancients supposed this to be the seat of melancholy, anger or vexation. Hence,

2. Anger; latent spite; ill humor. Thus we say, to vent ones spleen

In noble minds some dregs remain, Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain.

3. A fit of anger.

4. A fit; a sudden motion. [Not used.]

5. Melancholy; hypochondriacal affections.

--Bodies changd to recent forms by spleen

6. Immoderate merriment. [Not in use.]

SPLEENED, adjective Deprived of the spleen.

SPLEENFUL, adjective

1. Angry; peevish; fretful.

Myself have calmd their spleenful mutiny.

2. Melancholy; hypochondriacal.

SPLEENLESS, adjective Kind; gentle; mild.

SPLEENWORT, noun [Latin] A plant of the genus Asplenium; miltwaste.

SPLEENY, adjective

1. Angry; peevish; fretful.

A spleeny Lutheran, and not wholesome to our cause.

2. Melancholy; affected with nervous complaints.

SPLENDENT, adjective [Latin , to shine.]

1. Shining; glossy; beaming with light; as splendent planets; splendent metals.

2. Very conspicuous; illustrious.

SPLENDID, adjective [Latin , to shine. See Plain.]

1. Properly, shining; very bright; as a splendid sun. Hence,

2. Showy; magnificent; sumptuous; pompous; as a splendid palace; a splendid procession; a splendid equipage; a splendid feast or entertainment.

3. Illustrious; heroic; brilliant; as a splendid victory.

4. Illustrious; famous; celebrated; as a splendid reputation.

SPLENDIDLY, adverb

1. With great brightness or brilliant light.

2. Magnificently; sumptuously; richly; as a house splendidly furnished.

3. With great pomp or show. The king was splendidly attended.

SPLENDOR, noun [Latin See Plant and Planet.]

1. Great brightness; brilliant luster; as the splendor of the sun.

2. Great show of richness and elegance; magnificence; as the splendor of equipage or of royal robes.

3. Pomp; parade; as the splendor of a procession or of ceremonies.

4. Brilliance; eminence; as the splendor of a victory.

SPLENDROUS, adjective Having splendor. [Not in use.]

SPLENETIC, adjective [Latin] Affected with spleen; peevish; fretful.

You humor me when I am sick; Why not when I am splenetic

SPLENETIC, noun A person affected with spleen.

SPLENIC, adjective Belonging to the spleen; as the splenic vein.

SPLENISH, adjective Affected with spleen; peevish; fretful.

SPLENITIVE, adjective Hot; fiery; passionate; irritable. [Not in use.]

I am not splenitive and rash.

SPLENT, noun

1. A callous substance or insensible swelling on the shank-bone of a horse.

2. A splint. [See Splint.]

SPLICE, SPLISE, verb transitive [G.] To separate the strands of the two ends of a rope, and unite them by a particular manner of interweaving them; or to unite the end of a rope to any part of another by a like interweaving of the strands. There are different modes of splicing, as the short splice long splice eye splice etc.

SPLINT, SPLINTER, noun [G.]

1. A piece of wood split off; a thin piece (in proportion to its thickness, ) of wood or other solid substance, rent from the main body; as splinters of a ships side or mast, rent off by a shot.

2. In surgery, a thin piece of wood or other substance, used to hold or confine a broken bone when set.

3. A piece of bone rent off in a fracture.

SPLINT, SPLINTER, verb transitive

1. To split or rend into long thin pieces; to shiver; as, the lightning splinters a tree.

2. To confine with splinters, as a broken limb.

SPLINTER, verb intransitive To be split or rent into long pieces.

SPLINTERED, participle passive Split into splinters; secured by splints.

SPLINTERY, adjective Consisting of splinters, or resembling splinters; as the splintery fracture of a mineral, which discovers scales arising from splits or fissures, parallel to the line of fracture.

SPLICE, SPLISE verb transitive [G.] To separate the strands of the two ends of a rope, and unite them by a particular manner of interweaving them; or to unite the end of a rope to any part of another by a like interweaving of the strands. There are different modes of splicing, as the short splice, long splice, eye splice, etc.

SPLICE, noun The union of ropes by interweaving the strands.

SPLIT, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive split [G. See Spalt.]

1. To divide longitudinally or lengthwise; to separate a thing from end to end by force; to rive; to cleave; as, to split a piece of timber; to split a board. It differs from crack. To crack is to open or partially separate; to split is to separate entirely.

2. To rend; to tear asunder by violence; to burst; as, to split a rock or a sail.

Cold winter splits the rocks in twain.

3. To divide; to part; as, to split a hair. The phrases to split the heart, to split a ray of light, are now inelegant and obsolete, especially the former. The phrase, to split the earth, is not strictly correct.

4. To dash and break on a rock; as, a ship stranded and split

5. To divide; to break into discord; as a people split into parties.

6. To strain and pain with laughter; as, to split the sides.

SPLIT, verb intransitive

1. To burst; to part asunder; to suffer disruption; as, vessels split by the freezing of water in them. Glass vessels often split when heated too suddenly.

2. To burst with laughter.

Each had a gravity would make you split

3. To be broken; to be dashed to pieces. We were driven upon a rock, and the ship immediately split

To split on a rock, to fail; to err fatally; to have the hopes and designs frustrated.

SPLITTER, noun One who splits.

SPLITTING, participle present tense Bursting; riving; rending.

SPLUTTER, noun A bustle; a stir. [A low word and little used.]

SPLUTTER, verb intransitive To speak hastily and confusedly. [Low.]

SPODUMENE, noun [Gr., to reduce to ashes.] A mineral, called by Hauy triphane. It occurs in laminated masses, easily divisible into prisms with rhomboidal bases; the lateral faces smooth, shining and pearly; the cross fracture uneven and splintery. Before the blowpipe it exfoliates into little yellowish or grayish scales; whence its name.

SPOIL, verb transitive [Latin , to pull asunder, to tear, to strip, to peel.]

1. To plunder; to strip by violence; to rob; with of; as, to spoil one of his goods or possessions.

My sons their old unhappy sire despise, Spoild of his kingdom, and deprivd of eyes.

2. To seize by violence; to take by force; as, to spoil ones goods.

This mount with all his verdure spoild--

3. To corrupt; to cause to decay and perish. Heat and moisture will soon spoil vegetable and animal substances.

4. To corrupt; to vitiate; to mar.

Spiritual pride spoils many graces.

5. To ruin; to destroy. Our crops are sometimes spoiled by insects.

6. To render useless by injury; as, to spoil paper by wetting it.

7. To injure fatally; as, to spoil the eyes by reading.

SPOIL, verb intransitive

1. To practice plunder or robbery.

--Outlaws which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil

2. To decay; to lose the valuable qualities; to be corrupted; as, fruit will soon spoil in warm weather. Grain will spoil if gathered when wet or moist.

SPOIL, noun [Latin]

1. That which is taken from others by violence; particularly in war, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage; booty.

2. That which is gained by strength or effort.

Each science and each art his spoil

3. That which is taken from another without license.

Gentle gales fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole their balmy spoils.

4. The act or practice of plundering; robbery; waste.

The man that hath not music in himself, nor is not movd with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treason, stratagems and spoils.

5. Corruption; cause of corruption.

Villainous company hath been the spoil of me.

6. The slough or cast skin of a serpent or other animal.

SPOILED, participle passive Plundered; pillaged; corrupted; rendered useless.

SPOILER, noun

1. A plunderer; a pillager; a robber.

2. One that corrupts, mars or renders useless.

SPOILFUL, adjective Wasteful; rapacious. [Little used.]

SPOILING, participle present tense

1. Plundering; pillaging; corrupting; rendering useless.

2. Wasting; decaying.

SPOILING, noun Plunder; waste.

SPOKE, preterit tense of speak.

SPOKE, noun [G., this word, whose radical sense is to shoot or thrust, coincides with spike, spigot, pike, contracted from to spew.]

1. The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly.

2. The spar or round of a ladder. [Not in use in the United States.]

SPOKEN, participle passive of speak. pronoun spokn.

SPOKESMAN, noun [speak, spoke, and man.[ One who speaks for another.

He shall be thy spokesman to the people. Exodus 4:16.

SPOLIATE, verb transitive [Latin] To plunder; to pillage.

SPOLIATE, verb intransitive To practice plunder; to commit robbery. In time of war, rapacious men are let loose to spoliate on commerce.

SPOLIATION, noun

1. The act of plundering, particularly of plundering an enemy in time of war.

2. The act or practice of plundering neutrals at sea under authority.

3. In ecclesiastical affairs, the act of an incumbent in taking the fruits of his benefice without right, but under a pretended title.

SPONDAIC, SPONDAICAL, adjective [See Spondee.] Pertaining to a spondee; denoting two long feet in poetry.

SPONDAIC, SPONDAICAL adjective [See Spondee.] Pertaining to a spondee; denoting two long feet in poetry.

SPONDEE, noun [Latin] A poetic foot of two long syllables.

SPONDYL, SPONDYLE, noun [Latin , Gr.] A joint of the back bone; a verteber or vertebra.

SPONDYL, SPONDYLE noun [Latin , Gr.] A joint of the back bone; a verteber or vertebra.

SPONGE. [See Spunge.]

SPONK, noun [a word probably formed on punk.] Touchwood. In Scotland, a match; something dipped in sulphur for readily taking fire. [See Spunk.]

SPONSAL, adjective [Latin , to betroth.] Relating to marriage or to a spouse.

SPONSION, noun [Latin , to engage.] The act of becoming surety for another.

SPONSOR, noun [Latin] A surety; one who binds himself to answer for another, and is responsible for his default. In the church, the sponsors in baptism are sureties for the education of the child baptized.

SPONTANEITY, noun [Latin , of free will.] Voluntariness; the quality of being of free will or accord.

SPONTANEOUS, adjective [Latin , of free will.]

1. Voluntary; acting by its own impulse or will without the incitement of any thing external; acting of its own accord; as spontaneous motion.

2. Produced without being planted, or without human labor; as a spontaneous growth of wood.

SPONTANEOUS combustion, a taking fire of itself. Thus oiled canvas, oiled wool, and many other combustible substances, when suffered to remain for some time in a confined state, suddenly take fire, or undergo spontaneous combustion.

SPONTANEOUSLY, adverb

1. Voluntarily; of his own will or accord; used of animals; as, he acts spontaneously

2. By its own force or energy; without the impulse of a foreign cause; used of things.

Whey turns spontaneously acid.

SPONTANEOUSNESS, noun

1. Voluntariness; freedom of will; accord unconstrained; applied to animals.

2. Freedom of acting without a foreign cause; applied to things.

SPONTOON, noun A kind of half pike; a military weapon borne by officers of infantry.

SPOOL, noun [G.] A piece of cane or reed, or a hollow cylinder of wood with a ridge at each end; used by weavers to wind their yarn upon in order to slaie it and wind in on the beam. The spool is larger than the quill, on which yarn is wound for the shuttle. But in manufactories, the word may be differently applied.

SPOOL, verb transitive To wind on spools.

SPOOM, verb intransitive To be driven swiftly; probably a mistake for spoon. [See Spoon, the verb.]

SPOON, noun

1. A small domestic utensil, with a bowl or concave part and a handle, for dipping liquids; as a tea spoon; a table spoon

2. An instrument consisting of a bowl or hollow iron and a long handle, used for taking earth out of holes dug for setting posts.

SPOON, verb intransitive To put before the wind in a gale. [I believe not now used.]

SPOONFUL, noun [spoon and full.]

1. As much as a spoon contains or is able to contain; as a tea spoonful; a table spoonful

2. A small quantity of a liquid.

SPORADIC, SPORADICAL, adjective [Gr., separate, scattered; whence certain isles of Greece were called Sporades.] Separate; single; scattered; used only in reference to diseases. A sporadic disease, is one which occurs in particular persons and places, in distinction from an epidemic, which affects persons generally or in great numbers.

SPORADIC, SPORADICAL adjective [Gr., separate, scattered; whence certain isles of Greece were called Sporades.] Separate; single; scattered; used only in reference to diseases. A sporadic disease, is one which occurs in particular persons and places, in distinction from an epidemic, which affects persons generally or in great numbers.

Sporadic diseases are opposed to epidemics, as accidental, scattered complaints, neither general nor contagious.

SPORT, noun

1. That which diverts and makes merry; play; game; diversion; also, mirth. The word signifies both the cause and the effect; that which produces mirth, and the mirth or merriment produced.

Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.

Here the word denotes the cause of amusement.

They called Samson out of the prison-house; and he made them sport Judges 16:25.

Here sport is the effect.

2. Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth.

Then make sport at me, then let me be your jest.

They made a sport of his prophets.

3. That with which one plays, or which is driven about.

To flitting leaves, the sport of every wind.

Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions.

4. Play; idle jingle.

An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage, would meet with small applause.

5. Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing.

In sport To do a thing in sport is to do it in jest, for play or diversion.

So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, am not I in sport? Proverbs 26:19.

SPORT, verb transitive

1. To divert; to make merry; used with the reciprocal pronoun.

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Isaiah 47:1.

2. To represent by any kind of play.

Now sporting on thy lyre the love of youth.

SPORT, verb intransitive

1. To play; to frolick; to wanton.

See the brisk lambs that sport along the mead.

2. To trifle. The man that laughs at religion sports with his own salvation.

SPORTER, noun One who sports.

SPORTFUL, adjective

1. Merry; frolicksome; full of jesting; indulging in mirth or play; as a sportful companion.

Down he alights among the sportful herd.

2. Ludicrous; done in jest or for mere play.

These are no sportful productions of the soil.

SPORTFULLY, adverb In mirth; in jest; for the sake of diversion; playfully.

SPORTFULNESS, noun Play; merriment; frolick; a playful disposition; playfulness; as the sportfulness of kids and lambs.

SPORTIVE, adjective

1. Gay; merry; wanton; frolicksome.

Is it I that drive thee from the sportive court?

2. Inclined to mirth; playful; as a sportive humor.

SPORTIVENESS, noun

1. Playfulness; mirth; merriment.

2. Disposition to mirth.

SPORTLESS, adjective Without sport or mirth; joyless.

SPORTSMAN, noun [sport and man.]

1. One who pursues the sports of the field; one who hunts, fishes and fowls.

2. One skilled in the sports of the field.

SPORTULARY, adjective [Latin , a basket, an alms-basket.] Subsisting on alms or charitable contributions. [Little used.]

SPORTULE, noun [Latin , a little basket.] An alms; a dole; a charitable gift or contribution. [Not in use.]

SPOT, noun [We see this word is of the family of spatter, and that the radical sense is to throw or thrust. A spot is made by spattering or sprinkling.

1. A mark on a substance made by foreign matter; a speck; a blot; a place discolored. The least spot is visible on white paper.

2. A stain on character or reputation; something that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish.

Yet Chloe sure was formd without a spot

See 1 Peter 1:17, Ephesians 5:27.

3. A small extent of space; a place; any particular place.

The spot to which I point is paradise.

Fixd to one spot

So we say, a spot of ground, a spot of grass or flowers; meaning a place of small extent.

4. A place of a different color from the ground; as the spots of a leopard.

5. A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above its beak.

6. A dark place on the disk or face of the sun or of a planet.

7. A lucid place in the heavens.

Upon the spot immediately; before moving; without changing place. [So the French say, sur le champ.]

It was determined upon the spot

SPOT, verb transitive

1. To make a visible mark with some foreign matter; to discolor; to stain; as, to spot a garment; to spot paper.

2. To patch by way of ornament.

3. To stain; to blemish; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish; as reputation.

My virgin life no spotted thoughts shall stain.

To stop timber, is to cut or chip it, in preparation for hewing.

SPOTLESS, adjective

1. Free from spots, foul matter or discoloration.

2. Free from reproach or impurity; pure; untainted; innocent; as a spotless mind; spotless behavior.

A spotless virgin and a faultless wife.

SPOTLESSNESS, noun Freedom from spot or stain; freedom from reproach.

SPOTTED, participle passive Marked with spots or places of a different color from the ground; as a spotted beast or garment.

SPOTTEDNESS, noun The state or quality of being spotted.

SPOTTER, noun One that makes spots.

SPOTTINESS, noun The state or quality of being spotty.

SPOTTING, participle present tense Marking with spots; staining.

SPOTTY, adjective Full of spots; marked with discolored places.

SPOUSAGE, noun [See Spouse.[ The act of espousing. [Not used.]

SPOUSAL, adjective [from spouse.] Pertaining to marriage; nuptial; matrimonial; conjugal; connubial; bridal; as spousal rites; spousal ornaments.

SPOUSAL, noun [Latin See Spouse.] Marriage; nuptials. It is now generally used in the plural; as the spousals of Hippolita.

SPOUSE, noun [Latin , to engage.] One engaged or joined in wedlock; a married person, husband or wife. We say of a man, that he is the spouse of such a woman; or of a woman, she is the spouse of such a man.

SPOUSE, verb transitive To wed; to espouse. [Little used. See Espouse.]

SPOUSED, participle passive Wedded; joined in marriage; married; but seldom used. The word used in lieu of it is espoused.

SPOUSELESS, adjective Destitute of a husband or of a wife; as a spouseless king or queen.

SPOUT, noun [G., to spit, and spotten is to mock, banter, sport. These are of one family; spout retaining nearly the primary and literal meaning. See Bud and Pout.]

1. A pipe, or a projecting mouth of a vessel, useful in directing the stream of a liquid poured out; as the spout of a pitcher, of a tea pot or water pot.

2. A pipe conducting water from another pipe, or from a trough on a house.

3. A violent discharge of water raised in a column at sea, like a whirlwind, or by a whirlwind. [See Water-spout.]

SPOUT, verb transitive

1. To throw out, as liquids through a narrow orifice or pipe; as, an elephant spouts water from his trunk.

Next on his belly floats the mighty whale--He spouts the tide.

2. To throw out words with affected gravity; to mouth.

SPOUT, verb intransitive To issue with violence, as a liquid through a narrow orifice or from a spout; as, water spouts from a cask or a spring; blood spouts from a vein.

All the glittering hill is bright with spouting rills.

SPOUTED, participle passive Thrown in a stream from a pipe or narrow orifice.

SPOUTING, participle present tense Throwing in a stream from a pipe or narrow opening; pouring out words violently or affectedly.

SPOUTING, noun The act of throwing out, as a liquid from a narrow opening; a violent or affected speech; a harangue.

SPRAG, adjective Vigorous; sprightly. [Local.] [Note. In America, this word is, in popular language, pronounced spry, which is a contraction of spright, in sprightly.]

SPRAG, noun A young salmon. [Local.]

SPRAIN, verb transitive To overstrain the ligaments of a joint; to stretch the ligaments so as to injure them, but without luxation or dislocation.

SPRAIN, noun An excessive strain of the ligaments of a joint without dislocation.

SPRAINED, participle passive Injured by excessive straining.

SPRAINING, participle present tense Injuring by excessive extension.

SPRAINTS, noun The dung of an otter.

SPRANG, preterit tense of spring; but sprung is more generally used.

SPRAT, noun A small fish of the species Clupea.

SPRAWL, verb intransitive [The origin and affinities of this word are uncertain. It may be a contracted word.]

1. To spread and stretch the body carelessly in a horizontal position; to lie with the limbs stretched out or struggling. We say, a person lies sprawling; or he sprawls on the be or on the ground.

2. To move, when lying down, with awkward extension and motions of the limbs; to scrabble or scramble in creeping.

The birds were not fledged; but in sprawling and struggling to get clear of the flame, down they tumbled.

3. To widen or open irregularly, as a body of horse.

SPRAWLING, participle present tense

1. Lying with the limbs awkwardly stretched; creeping with awkward motions; struggling with contorsion of the limbs.

2. Widening or opening irregularly, as cavalry.

SPRAY, noun [probably allied to sprig. The radical sense is a shoot.]

1. A small shoot or branch; or the extremity of a branch. Hence in England, spray faggots are bundles of small branches, used as fuel.

2. Among seamen, the water that is driven from the top of a wave in a storm, which spreads and flies in small particles. It differs from spoon-drift; as spray is only occasional, whereas spoon-drift flies continually along the surface of the sea.

SPREAD, SPRED, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive spread or spred. [G., to spread The more correct orthography is spred.

SPREADER, SPREDDER, n.

SPREADING, SPREDDING, participle present tense

SPREAD, SPRED verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive spread or SPRED [G., to spread. The more correct orthography is SPRED

1. To extend in length and breadth, or in breadth only; to stretch or expand to a broader surface; as, to spread a carpet or a table cloth; to spread a sheet on the ground.

2. To extend; to form into a plate; as, to spread silver. Jeremiah 10:1.

3. To set; to place; to pitch; as, to spread a tent. Genesis 33:1.

4. To cover by extending something; to reach every part.

And an unusual paleness spreads her face.

5. To extend; to shoot to a greater length in every direction, so as to fill or cover a wider space.

The stately trees fast spread their branches.

6. To divulge; to propagate; to publish; as news or fame; to cause to be more extensively know; as, to spread a report.

In this use the word is sometimes accompanied with abroad.

They, when they had departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. Matthew 9:1.

7. To propagate; to cause to affect greater numbers; as, to spread a disease.

8. To emit; to diffuse; as emanations or effluvia; as, odoriferous plants spread their fragrance.

9. To disperse; to scatter over a larger surface; as, to spread manure; to spread plaster or lime on the ground.

10. To prepare; to set and furnish with provision; as, to spread a table. God spread a table for the Israelites in the wilderness.

11. To open; to unfold; to unfurl; to stretch; as, to spread the sails of a ship.

SPREAD, SPRED, verb intransitive

1. To extend itself in length and breadth, in all directions, or in breadth only; to be extended or stretched. The larger elms spread over a space of forty or fifty yards in diameter; or the shade of the larger elms spreads over that space. The larger lakes in America spread over more than fifteen hundred square miles.

Plants, if they spread much, are seldom tall.

2. To be extended by drawing or beating; as, a metal spreads with difficulty.

3. To be propagated or made known more extensively. Ill reports sometimes spread with wonderful rapidity.

4. To be propagated from one to another; as, a disease spreads into all parts of a city. The yellow fever of American cities has not been found to spread in the country.

SPREAD, SPRED, noun

1. Extent; compass.

I have a fine spread of improvable land.

2. Expansion of parts.

No flower has that spread of the woodbind.

SPREADER, SPREDDER noun

1. One that spreads, extends, expands or propagates; as a spreader of disease.

2. One that divulges one that causes to be more generally know; a publisher; as a spreader of news or reports.

SPREADING, SPREDDING participle present tense

1. Extending; expanding; propagating; divulging; dispersing; diffusing.

2. adjective Extending or extended over a large space; wide; as the spreading oak.

Gov. Winthrop and his associates at Charleston had for a church a large spreading tree.

SPREADING, SPREDDING, noun The act of extending, dispersing or propagating.

SPRENT, participle passive Sprinkled. [See Sprinkle.]

SPRIG, noun

1. A small shoot or twig of a tree or other plant; a spray; as a sprig of laurel or of parsely.

2. A brad, or nail without a head. [Local.]

3. The representation of a small branch in embroidery.

4. A small eye-bolt ragged at the point.

SPRIG, verb transitive To mark or adorn with the representation of small branches; to work with sprigs; as, to sprig muslin.

SPRIGGED, participle passive Wrought with representations of small twigs.

SPRIGGING, participle present tense Working with sprigs.

SPRIGGY, adjective Full of sprigs or small branches.

SPRIGHT, SPRITE, noun [G., spirit. It should be written sprite.]

1. A spirit; a shade; a soul; an incorporeal agent.

Forth he calld, out of deep darkness dread, legions of sprights.

And gaping graves receivd the guilty spright

2. A walking spirit; an apparition.

3. Power which gives cheerfulness or courage.

Hold thou my heart, establish thou mu sprights. [Not in use.]

4. An arrow. [Not in use.]

SPRIGHT, verb transitive To haunt, as a spright [ Not used.]

SPRIGHTFUL, adjective [This word seems to be formed from the root of sprag, a local word, pronounced in America spry. It belongs to the family of spring and sprig.] Lively; brisk; nimble; vigorous; gay.

Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman.

Steeds sprightful as the light.

[This word is little used in America. We use sprightly in the same sense.]

SPRIGHTFULLLY, adv. Briskly; vigorously.

SPRIGHTFULNESS, noun Briskness; liveliness; vivacity.

SPRIGHTLESS, adjective Destitute of life; dull; sluggish; as virtues sprightless cold.

SPRIGHTLINESS, noun [from sprightly.] Liveliness; life; briskness; vigor; activity; gayety; vivacity.

In dreams, with what sprightliness and alacrity does the soul exert herself.

SPRIGHTLY, adjective Lively; brisk; animated; vigorous; airy; gay; as a sprightly youth; a sprightly air; a sprightly dance.

The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green.

And sprightly wit and love inspires.

SPRING, verb intransitive preterit tense sprung, [sprang, not wholly obsolete; ] participle passive sprung.

1. To vegetate and rise out of the ground; to begin to appear; as vegetables.

To satisfy the desolate ground, and cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. Job 38:27.

2. To begin to grow.

The teeth of the young not sprung--

3. To proceed, as from the seed or cause.

Much more good of sin shall spring

4. To arise; to appear; to begin to appear or exist.

When the day began to spring they let her go. Judges 21:1

Do not blast my springing hopes.

5. To break forth; to issue into sight or notice.

O spring to light; auspicious babe, be born.

6. To issue or proceed, as from ancestors or from a country. Aaron and Moses sprung from Levi.

7. To proceed, as from a cause, reason, principle, or other original. The noblest title springs from virtue.

They found new hope to spring out of despair.

8. To grow; to thrive.

What makes all this but Jupiter the king, at whose command we perish and we spring

9. To proceed or issue, as from a fountain or source. Water springs from reservoirs in the earth. Rivers spring from lakes or ponds.

10. To leap; to bound; to jump.

The mountain stag that springs from highth to highth, and bounds along the plains--

11. To fly back; to start; as, a bow when bent, springs back by its elastic power.

12. To start or rise suddenly from a covert.

Watchful as fowlers when their game will spring

13. To shoot; to issue with speed and violence.

And sudden light sprung through the vaulted roof--

14. To bend or wind from a straight direction or plane surface. Our mechanics say, a piece of timber or a plank springs in seasoning.

To spring at, to leap towards; to attempt to reach by a leap.

To spring in, to rush in; to enter with a leap or in haste.

To spring forth, to leap out; to rush out.

To spring on or upon, to leap on; to rush on with haste or violence; to assault.

SPRING, verb transitive

1. To start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth or from a covert; as, to spring a pheasant.

2. To produce quickly or unexpectedly.

The nurse, surprisd with fright, starts up and leaves her bed, and springs a light.

[I have never heard such an expression.]

3. To start; to contrive or to produce or propose on a sudden; to produce unexpectedly.

The friends to the cause sprang a new project.

[In lieu of spring the people int he United States generally use start; to start a new project.]

4. To cause to explode; as, to spring a mine.

5. To burst; to cause to open; as, to spring a leak. When it is said, a vessel has sprung a leak, the meaning is, the leak has then commenced.

6. To crack; as, to spring a mast or a yard.

7. To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap; as, to spring a trap.

To spring a butt, in seamens language, to loosen the end of a plank in a ships bottom.

To spring the luff, when a vessel yields to the helm, and sails nearer to the wind than before.

To spring a fence, for to leap a fence, is not a phrase used in this country.

To spring an arch, to set off, begin or commence an arch from an abutment or pier.

SPRING, noun

1. A leap; a bound; a jump; as of an animal.

The prisner with a spring from prison broke.

2. A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by its elasticity; as the spring of a bow.

3. Elastic power or force. The soul or the mind requires relaxation, that it may recover its natural spring

Heavns, what a spring was in his arm.

4. An elastic body; a body which, when bent or forced from its natural state, has the power of recovering it; as the spring of a watch or clock.

5. Any active power; that by which action or motion is produced or propagated.

--Like nature letting down the springs of life.

Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move the heros glory--

6. A fountain of water; an issue of water from the earth, or the basin of water at the place of its issue. Springs are temporary or perennial. From springs proceed rivulets, and rivulets united form rivers. Lakes and ponds are usually fed by springs.

7. The place where water usually issues from the earth, though no water is there. Thus we say, a spring is dry.

8. A source; that from which supplies are drawn. The real Christian has in his own breast a perpetual and inexhaustible spring of joy.

The sacred spring whence right and honor stream.

9. Rise; original; as the spring of the day. 1 Samuel 9:26.

10. Cause; original. The springs of great events are often concealed from common observation.

11. The season of the year when plants begin to vegetate and rise; the vernal season. This season comprehends the months of March, April and May, in the middle latitudes north of the equator.

12. In seamens language, a crack in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely. [In the sense of leak, I believe it is not used.]

13. A rope passed out of a ships stern and attached to a cable proceeding from her bow, when she is at anchor. It is intended to bring her broadside to bear upon some object. A spring is also a rope extending diagonally from the stern of one ship to the head of another, to make on ship sheer off to a greater distance.

14. A plant; a shoot; a young tree. [Not in use.]

15. A youth. [Not in use.]

16. A hand; a shoulder of pork. [Not in use.]

SPRINGAL, noun A youth. [Not in use.]

SPRINGE, noun [from spring.] A gin; a noose; which being fastened to an elastic body, is drawn close with a sudden spring, by which means it catches a bird.

SPRINGE, verb transitive To catch in a springe; to ensnare.

SPRINGER, noun

1. One who springs; one that rouses game.

2. A name given to the grampus.

3. In architecture, the rib of a groin or concentrated vault.

SPRINGINESS, noun [from springy.]

1. Elasticity; also, the power of springing.

2. The state of abounding with springs; wetness; spunginess; as of land.

SPRINGING, participle present tense Arising; shooting up; leaping; proceeding; rousing.

Sprining use, in law, a contingent use; a use which may arise upon a contingency.

SPRINGING, noun

1. The act or process of leaping, arising, issuing or proceeding.

2. Growth; increase. Psalms 65:10.

3. In building, the side of an arch contiguous to the part on which it rests.

SPRINGLE, noun A springe; a noose. [Not in use.]

SPRINGY, adjective [from spring.]

1. Elastic; possessing the power of recovering itself when bent or twisted.

2. Having great elastic power.

3. Having the power to leap; able to leap far.

4. Abounding with springs or fountains; wet; spungy; as springy land.

SPRINKLE, verb transitive [G., Latin ]

1. To scatter; to disperse; as a liquid or a dry substance composed of fine separable particles; to besprinkle; as, to sprinkle the earth with water; to sprinkle a floor with sand; to sprinkle paper with iron filings.

2. To scatter on; to disperse on in small drops or particles; to besprinkle; as, to sprinkle the earth with water; to sprinkle a floor with sand; to sprinkle paper with iron filings.

3. To wash; to cleanse; to purify.

Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Hebrews 10:22.

SPRINKLE, verb transitive

1. To perform the act of scattering a liquid or any fine substance, so that it may fall in small particles.

The priest shall sprinkle of the oil with his fingers. Leviticus 14:7.

Baptism may well enough be performed by sprinkling or effusion of water.

2. To rain moderately; as it sprinkles.

SPRINKLE, noun A small quantity scattered; also, an utensil for sprinkling.

SPRINKLED, participle passive

1. Dispersed in small particles, as a liquid or as dust.

2. Having a liquid or a fine substance scattered over.

SPRINKLER , noun One that sprinkles.

SPRINKLING, participle present tense

1. Dispersing, as a liquid or as dust.

2. Scattering on, in fine drops or particles.

SPRINKLING, noun

1. The act of scattering in small drops or parcels.

2. A small quantity falling in distinct drops or parts, or coming moderately; as a sprinkling of rain or snow.

SPRIT, verb transitive [G.] To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; to eject; to spirt. [Not in use. See Spurt.]

SPRIT, noun

1. A shoot; a sprout.

2. A small boom, pole or spar which crosses the sail of a boat diagonally from the mast to the upper aftmost corner, which it is used to extend and elevate.

SPRITE, noun A spirit.

SPRITEFUL. [See Sprightful.]

SPRITEFULLY. [See Sprightfully.]

SPRITELINESS. [See Sprightliness.]

SPRITELY. [See Sprightly.]

SPROD, noun A salmon in its second year.

SPRONG, old preterit tense of spring. [Not in use.]

SPROUT, verb intransitive [G.]

1. To shoot, as the seed of a plant; to germinate; to push out new shoots. A grain that sprouts in ordinary temperature in ten days, may by an augmentation of heat be made to sprout in forty eight hours. The stumps of trees often sprout and produce a new forest. Potatoes will sprout and produce a crop, although pared and deprived all their buds or eyes.

2. To shoot into ramifications.

Vitriol is apt to sprout with moisture.

3. To grow, like shoots of plants.

And on the ashes sprouting plumes appear.

SPROUT, noun

1. The shoot of a plant; a shoot from the seed or from the stump or from the root of a plant or tree. The sprouts of the cane, in Jamaica are called ratoons.

2. A shoot from the end of a branch. The young shoots of shrubs are called sprouts, and in the forest often furnish browse of cattle.

SPROUTS, noun plural Young coleworts.

SPRUCE, adjective Nice; trim; neat without elegance or dignity; formerly applied to things with a serious meaning; now applied to persons only.

He is so spruce that he never can be genteel.

SPRUCE, verb transitive To trim; to dress with great neatness.

SPRUCE, verb intransitive To dress ones self with affected neatness.

SPRUCE, noun The fir-tree; a name given to a species of evergreen, the Pinus nigra, which is used in families to give flavor to beer. It is used by way of decoction, or in the essence.

SPRUCELY, adverb With extreme or affected neatness.

SPRUCENESS, noun Neatness without taste or elegance; trimness; fineness; quaintness.

SPRUE, noun

1. A matter formed in the mouth in certain diseases.

2. In Scotland, that which is thrown off in casting metals; scoria.

SPRUG, verb transitive To make smart. [Not in use.]

SPRUNG, preterit tense and participle passive of spring. The man sprung over the ditch; the mast is sprung; a hero sprung from a race of kings.

SPRUNT, verb intransitive To spring up; to germinate; to spring forward. [Not in use.]

SPRUNTLY, adverb Vigorously; youthfully; like a young man. [Not in use.]

SPRY, adjective Having great power of leaping or running; nimble; active; vigorous. [This word is in common use in New England, and is doubtless a contraction of sprig. See Sprightly.]

SPUD, noun

1. A short knife. [Little used.]

2. Any short thing; in contempt.

3. A tool of the fork kind, used by farmers.

SPUD, verb transitive To dig or loosen the earth with a spud [Local.]

SPUME, noun [Latin] Froth; foam; scum; frothy matter raised on liquors or fluid substances by boiling, effervescence or agitation.

SPUME, verb intransitive To froth; to foam.

SPUMESCENCE, noun Frothiness; the state of foaming.

SPUMOUS, SPUMY, adjective [Latin] Consisting of froth or scum; foamy.

SPUMOUS, SPUMY adjective [Latin] Consisting of froth or scum; foamy.

The SPUMY waves proclaim the watry war.

The spumous and florid state of the blood.

SPUN, preterit tense and participle passive of spin.

SPUNGE, noun [Latin , Gr.]

1. A porous marine substance, found adhering to rocks, shells, etc. Under water, and on rocks about the shore at low water. It is generally supposed to be of animal origin, and consists of a fibrous reticulated substance, covered by a soft gelatinous matter, but in which no polypes have hitherto been observed. It is so porous as to imbibe a great quantity of water, and is used for various purposes in the arts and in surgery.

2. In gunnery, an instrument for cleaning cannon after a discharge. It consists of a cylinder of wood, covered with lamb skin. For small guns, it is commonly fixed to one end of the handle of the rammer.

3. In the manege, the extremity or point of a horse-shoe, answering to the heel.

Pyrotechnical spunge is made of mushrooms or fungi, growing on old oaks, ash, fir, etc. which are boiled in water, dried and beaten, then put in a strong lye prepared with saltpeter, and again dried in an oven. This makes the black match or tinder brought from Germany.

SPUNGE, verb transitive

1. To wipe with a wet spunge; as, to spunge a slate.

2. To wipe out with a spunge as letters or writing.

3. To cleanse with a spunge; as, to spunge a cannon.

4. To wipe out completely; to extinguish or destroy.

SPUNGE, verb intransitive

1. To suck in or imbibe, as a spunge

2. To gain by mean arts, by intrusion or hanging on; as an idler who spunges on his neighbor.

SPUNGED, participle passive Wiped with a spunge; wiped out; extinguished.

SPUNGER, noun One who uses a spunge; a hanger on.

SPUNGIFORM, adjective [spunge and form.] Resembling a spunge; soft and porous; porous.

SPUNGINESS, noun The quality or state of being spungy, or porous like spunge.

SPUNGIOUS, adjective Full of small cavities, like a spunge; as spungious bones.

SPUNGY, adjective

1. Soft and full of cavities; of an open, loose, pliable texture; as a spungy excrescence; spungy earth; spungy cake; the spungy substance of the lungs.

2. Full of small cavities; as spungy bones.

3. Wet; drenched; soaked and soft, like spunge.

4. Having the quality of imbibing fluids.

SPUNK, noun [probably from punk.]

1. Touchwood; wood that readily takes fire. Hence,

2. Vulgarly, an inflammable temper; spirit; as a man of spunk Ill natured observations touched his spunk [Low.]

SPUR, noun

1. An instrument having a rowel or little wheel with sharp points, worn on horsemens heels, to prick the horses for hastening their pace.

Girt with rusty sword and spur

Hence, to set spurs to a horse, is to prick him and put him upon a run.

2. Incitement; instigation. The love of glory is the spur to heroic deeds.

3. The largest or principal root of a tree; hence perhaps, the short wooden buttress of a post; [that is, in both cases, a shoot.]

4. The hard pointed projection on a cocks leg, which serves as an instrument of defense and annoyance.

5. Something that projects; a snag.

6. In America, a mountain that shoots from any other mountain or range of mountains, and extends to some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.

7. That which excites. We say, upon the spur of the occasion; that is, the circumstances or emergency which calls for immediate action.

8. A sea swallow.

9. The hinder part of the nectary in certain flowers, shaped like a cocks spur

10. A morbid shoot or excrescence in grain, particularly in rye.

11. In old fortifications, a wall that crosses a part of the rampart and joins to the town wall.

SPUR, verb transitive

1. To prick with spurs; to incite to a more hasty pace; as, to spur a horse.

2. To incite; to instigate; to urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object. Some men are spurred to action by the love of glory, others by the love of power. Let affection spur us to social and domestic duties.

3. To impel; to drive.

Love will not be spurrd to what it lothes.

4. To put spurs on.

SPURs of the beams, in a ship, are curving timbers, serving as half beams to support the deck, where whole beams cannot be used.

SPUR, verb intransitive

1. To travel with great expedition.

The Parthians shall be there, and spurring from the fight, confess their fear. [Unusual.]

2. To press forward.

Some bold men--by spurring on, refine themselves.

SPURGALL, verb transitive [spur and gall.] To gall or wound with a spur.

SPURGALL, noun A place galled or excoriated by much using of the spur.

SPURGALLED, participle passive Galled or hurt by a spur; as a spurgalled hackney.

SPURGE, noun [Latin] A plant of the genus Euphorbia.

SPURGING, for purging, not in use.

SPURIOUS, adjective [Latin]

1. Not genuine; not proceeding from the true source, or from the source pretended; counterfeit; false; adulterate. spurious writings are such as are not composed by the authors to whom they are ascribed. spurious drugs are common. The reformed churches reject spurious ceremonies and traditions.

2. Not legitimate; bastard; as spurious issue. By the laws of England, one begotten and born out of lawful matrimony, is a spurious child.

SPURIOUS disease, a disease not of the genuine type, but bearing a resemblance in its symptoms.

SPURIOUSLY, adverb Counterfeitly; falsely.

SPURIOUSNESS, noun

1. The state or quality of being counterfeit, false or not genuine; as the spuriousness of drugs, of coin or of writings.

2. Illegitimacy; the state of being bastard, or not of legitimate birth; as the spuriousness of issue.

SPURLING, noun A small sea fish.

SPURN, verb transitive [Latin , spur, kicking.]

1. To kick; to drive back or away, as with the foot.

2. To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept. What multitudes of rational beings spurn the offers of eternal happiness!

3. To treat with contempt.

SPURN, verb intransitive

1. To manifest disdain in rejecting any thing; as, to spurn at the gracious offers of pardon.

2. To make contemptuous opposition; to manifest disdain in resistance.

Nay more, to spurn at your most royal image.

3. To kick or toss up the heels.

The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns.

SPURN, noun Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.

The insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes.

SPURNED, participle passive Rejected with disdain; treated with contempt.

SPURNER, noun One who spurns.

SPURNEY, noun A plant.

SPURNING, participle present tense Rejecting with contempt.

SPURRE, noun A name of the sea swallow.

SPURRED, participle passive

1. Furnished with spurs.

2. adjective Wearing spurs, or having shoots like spurs.

SPURRER, noun One who uses spurs.

SPURRIER, noun One whose occupation is to make spurs.

SPURRY, noun A plant of the genus Spergula.

SPURT, verb transitive [The English word has suffered a transposition of letters. It is from the root of sprout, which see.] To throw out, as liquid in a stream; to drive or force out with violence, as a liquid from a pipe or small orifice; as, to spurt water from the mouth, or other liquid from a tube.

SPURT, verb intransitive To gush or issue out in a stream, as liquor from a cask; to rush from a confined place in a small stream.

Then the small jet, which hasty hands unlock, spurts in the gardners eyes who turns the cock.

SPURT, noun

1. A sudden or violent ejection or gushing of a liquid substance from a tube, orifice or other confined place; a jet.

2. A sudden or short occasion or exigency; sudden effort. [Vulgar.]

SPURTLE, verb transitive [from spurt.] To shoot in a scattering manner. [Little used.]

SPURWAY, noun [spur and way.] A horse path; a narrow way; a bridle road; a way for a single beast. [Not used in the United States.]

SPUTATION, noun [Latin , to spit.] The act of spitting. [Not used.]

SPUTATIVE, adjective [supra.] Spitting much; inclined to spit. [Not used.]

SPUTTER, verb intransitive [Latin , to spit. It belongs to the root of spout and spit; of the latter it seems to be a diminutive.]

1. To spit, or to emit saliva from the mouth in small or scattered portions, as in rapid speaking.

2. To throw out moisture in small detached parts; as green wood sputtering in the flame.

3. To fly off in small particles with some crackling or noise.

When sparkling lamps their sputtering lights advance.

4. To utter words hastily and indistinctly; literally, to spout small; to speak so rapidly as to emit saliva.

They could neither of them speak their rage, and so they fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting apples.

SPUTTER, verb transitive To throw out with haste and noise; to utter with indistinctness.

In the midst of caresses--to sputter out the basest accusations.

SPUTTER, noun Moist matter thrown out in small particles.

SPUTTERED, participle passive Thrown out in small portions, as liquids; uttered with haste and indistinctness, as words.

SPUTTERER, noun One that sputters.

SPUTTERING, participle present tense Emitting in small particles; uttering rapidly and indistinctly; speaking hastily; spouting.

SPY, noun

1. A person sent into an enemys camp to inspect their works, ascertain their works, ascertain their strength and their intentions, to watch their movements, and secretly communicate intelligence to the proper officer. By the laws of war among all civilized nations, a spy is subjected to capital punishment.

2. A person deputed to watch the conduct of others.

3. One who watches the conduct of others.

These wretched spies of wit.

SPY, verb transitive

1. To see; to gain sight of; to discover at a distance, or in a state of concealment. It is the same as espy; as, to spy land from the mast head of a ship.

As tiger spied two gentle fawns.

One in reading skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration.

2. To discover by close search or examination; as, a lawyer in examining the pleadings in a case, spies a defect.

3. To explore; to view, inspect and examine secretly; as a country; usually with out.

Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof. Numbers 21:32.

SPY, verb intransitive To search narrowly; to scrutinize.

It is my natures plague to spy into abuse.