To SPEAK. v. a. 1. To utter with the mouth; to pronounce. Esther, vii. 6. Mordecai had spoken good. Consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds. Judges. They sat down with him upon the ground, and none spake a word. Job, ii. 13. When divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed. Acts, xix. 9. You from my youth Have known and tried me, speak 1 more than truth? Sandys. What you keep by you, you may change and mend, But words once spoke can never be recall'd. Waller. Under the tropick is our language spoke, And part of Flanders hath receiv'd our yoke. Waller. ile no where speaks it out, or in direct terms calls them substances. Locke The king hath drawn Shakesp. Henry IV. corded net athwart the stream, with which, and Carew To SPEAR. v. a. [from the noun.] To kill or pierce with a spear. If there be matter of law that carries any di culty, the jury may, to deliver themselves from an attaint, find it specially. Hale To SPEAR. v. n. To shoot or sprout. This SPECIALTY. n.s. is commonly written spire. Let them not lie lest they should spear, and the air dry and spoil the shoot Mortimer's Husbandry SPEA'RGRASS. n. s. [spear and grass.] Long stiff grass. Tickle our noses with speargrass to make them bleed; and then beslubber our garments with it. Shakesp Henry IV. SPEARMAN. n.s. [spear and man.] One who uses a lance in fight. The spearman's arm, by thee, great God, di rected, Prior. [specialité, Fr. from SPECIALITY. special.] Particularity, On these two general heads all other specialna are dependent. Hooker. The packet is not come Where that and other specialties are bound Shakesp Speciality of rule hath been neglected. Shakep. When men were sure, that, in case they rested upon a bare contract without speciality, the other party might wage his law, they would not rest upon such contracts without reducing the debt into Hak. a speciality, which accorded many suits. SPECIES. n. s. [species, Lat.] 1. A sort; a subdivision of a general term. A special idea is called by the schools a species; it is one common nature that agrees to several singular individual beings: so horse is a special idea or species, as it agrees to Bucephalus, Trot, and Snowball. Watts. Sends forth a certain wound. Bacon's Henry VII. 2. In conversation or reading, find out the true sense or idea which the speaker or writer affixes to his words. Watts's Logick Common speakers have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in; aud these are always ready at the mouth. Swift. 2. One that speaks in any particular man A special idea is called by the schools a species. Watts. Particular; peculiar. Most commonly with a certain special grace of her own, wagging her lips, and grinning instead of! smiling. Sidney. The several books of scripture having had each some several occasion and particular purpose which caused them to be written, the contents thereof are according to the exigence of that special end whereunto they are intended. Hooker. Of all men alive, I never yet beheld that special face, Our Saviour is represented every where in scripture as the special patron of the poor and the afflicted, and as laying their interest to heart more nearly than those of any other of his members. Atterbury. phonick instrument; a trumpet by which 3. Appropriate; designed for a particular the voice may be propagated to a great distance. That with one blast through the whole house does bound, And first taught speaking trumpet how to sound. Dryden. SPEAR. n. s. [ys-per, Welsh, rpene, Sax. spere, Dut. spare, old Fr. sparum, low Lat.] 1. A long weapon with a sharp point, used in thrusting or throwing; a lance. Those brandishers of speares, From many cities drawn, are they that are our hir.derers. Chapman. Th' Egyptian like a hill himself did rear;' Like some tall tree upon it seem'd his spear. Cowley. Nor wanted in his grasp What seem'd both shield and spear. Milton. purpose. O'Neal, upon his marriage with a daughter of Such things are evident by natural light, which 4. Extraordinary; uncommon. That which necessity of some special time doth cause to be enjoined, bindeth no longer than during that time, but doth afterward become free. Class of nature; single order of beings. He intendeth the care of species or common n tures, but letteth loose the guard of individuals or single existencies. Brown The Phenix Pindar is a whole species alone. Concley Hudibras For we are animals no less, Although of different species. Thou nam'st a race which must proceed from An apparent diversity between the species visi ble and audible is, that the visible doth not mingle Bacon in the medium, but the audible doth. It is a most certain rule, how much any body hath of colour, so much hath it of opacity, and by so much the more unfit it is to transmit the species. Ray on the Creation The species of the letters illuminated with blue, were nearer to the lens than those illuminated with deep red, by about three inches, or three and a quarter; but the species of the letters illuminated with indigo and violet appeared so confused and indistinct, that I could not read them. Newton's Op. Representation to the mind. Wit in the poet, or wit-writing, is no other than the faculty of the imagination in the writer, which searches over all the memory for the species of ideas of those things which it designs to represent Dryden. 5. Show; visible exhibition. Not in use; and perhaps, in the following quotation, misprinted for spectacles. proportion of the circulating species of its time | SPECIFICATION. n. s. [from specifick ;| Arbuthnot. 7. Simples that have place in a compound 1. Distinct notation; determination by a medicine. SPECIFICAL. adj. [specifique, Fr. spe- That thou to truth the perfect way may'st know, The understanding, as to the exercise of this power, is subject to the command of the will, though, as to the specifick nature of i's acts, it is determined by the obj ct. South. By whose direction is the nutriment so regularly distributed into the respective parts, and how are they kept to their specifick uniformities? Glanville. The se principles 1 consider not as occult qualities, supposed to result from the specifick forins of things, but as general laws of nature, by which the things themselves are formed; their truth appearing to us by phænomena, though their causes be not yet discovered. Newton's Opticks. As all things were formed according to these specifical platforms, so their truth must be measured from their conformity to them. Norris Specifick gravity is the appropriate and peculiar gravity or weight which any species of natural bodies have, and by which they are plainly distinguishable from all other bodies of different kinds. Quincy. The specifick qualities of plants reside in their native spirit, oil, and essential salt: for the water, fixt salt, and earth, appear to be the same in all plants. Arbuthnot. Specifick difference is that primary attribute which distinguishes each species from one another, while they stand ranked under the same general nature or genus. Though wine differs from other liquids, in that it is the juice of a certain fruit, yet this is but a general or generick difference: for it does not distinguish wine from cyder or perry : the spec fick difference of wine therefore is its pressure from the grape; as cyder is pressed from apples, and perry from pears. Watts. 2. [In medicine.] Appropriated to the cure of some particular distemper. It is usually applied to the arcana, or medicines that work by occult qualities. The operation of purging medicines has been referred to a hidden propriety, a specifical virtue, and the like shifts of ignorance. Bacon's Nat Hist. If she would drink a good decoction of sarsa, with the usual specificks, she might enjoy a good health. Wiseman. SPECIFICALLY. adv. [from specifick.] In such a manner as to constitute a species; according to the nature of the species. His faith must be not only living, but lively too; it must be put into a posture by a articular exercise of those several virtues that are specifically requisite to a due performance of this duty." South's Sermons. Human reason doth not only gradually, but specifically, differ from the fantastick reason of brutes, which have no conceit of truth, as an aggregate of divers simple conceits, nor of any other universal. Grew. 2. peculiar mark. This specification or limitation of the question, The constitution here speaks generally, without The smiling infant in his hand shall take As the change of such laws as have been specified were. St. Peter doth not specify what these waters Several persons have exhibited specimens of this 1. Showy; pleasing to the view. The rest, far greater part, She next I took to wife, Milton. O that I never had! fond wish too late! Bad men boast This is the only specious objection which our Thus in the glebe the deadly nightshade grows, SPECIOUSLY. adv. [from specious.] With Piety is opposed to hypocrisy and insincerity; Hammond Every speck does not blind a man. Gov. of the To. Then are they happy, when No speck is left of their habitual stains; But the pure æther of the soul remains. Dry. En. To SPECK. v. a. To spot; to stain in He must allow that bodies were endowed with drops. the same affections then as ever since; and that, Flow'r if an axe head be supposed to float upon water, Carnation, purple, azure, or speck'd with gold. which is specifically lighter, it had been supernatural. Bentley. SPECKLE. n. s. [from speck.] Small speck; little spot. To SPECIFICATE. v. a. [from species and facio, Lat.] To mark by notation of distinguishing particularities. Man, by the instituted law of his creation, and the common influence of the divine goodness, is nabled to act as a reasonable creature, without any particular, specificating, concurrent, new imperate act of the divine special providence. Hale. 2. A show; a gazing stock; any thing exhibited to the view as eminently remarkable. In open place produc'd they me, To be a publick spectacle to all. Shak. Henry VI. Any thing perceived by the sight. A dunghill of dead carcases he spy'd, Denham. 3. [In the plural.] Glasses to assist the sight. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side. Shak. We have helps for sight above spectacles and glasses. Bucon Shakespeare was naturally learned: he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards and found her there. Dryden on Dramatick Poesy. The first spectacle-maker did not think that he was leading the way to the discovery of new plaGrew. This is the reason of the decay of sight in old men, and shews why their sight is mended by spectacles Newton. nets. This day then let us not be told, Swift All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights Are spectacled to see him. Shakesp. Coriolanus. SPECTATION. n. s. [spectatio, Lat.] Regard; respect. This simple spectation of the lungs is differenced from that which concomitates a pleurisy. Harvey. SPECTA'TOR. n. s. [spectateur, Fr. spectator, Lat.] A looker-on; a beholder. More Shakesp Than history can pattern, though devis'd And play'd to take spectators. If it proves a good repast to the spectators, the dish pays the shot. Shakesp. Cymbeline. An old gentleman mounting on horseback, got up heavily; but desired the spectators that they would count fourscore and eight before they judged him. Dryden. He mourns his former vigour lost so far To make him now spectator of a war. Milton. Dryden. What pleasure hath the owner more than the spectator? Seed. SPECTATORSHIP. n. s. [from spectator.] Act of beholding. To SPECKLE. v. a. [from the noun.] To So dreadfully he towards him did pass, Thou stand'st i' th' state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship, and crueller in suffering. Shakesp. SPECTRE. n. s. [spectre, Fr. spectrum, Lat.] Apparition; appearance of persons dead. The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend, With bold fanatick spectres to rejoice. Dryden. The very poetical use of the word, for a spectre doth imply an exact resemblance to some real being it represents. Stilling fleet. Those are nothing but spectres the understanding raises to itself, to flatter its own laziness. Locke. SPECTRUM. n. s. [Lat.] An image; a 6. visible form. This prism had some veins running along within the glass, from the one end to the other, which scattered some of the sun's light irregularly, but had no sensible effect in increasing the length of the coloured spectrum. Newton's Opt. SPECULAR. adj. [specularis, Lat.] 1. Having the qualities of a mirrour or looking-glass It were but madness now t' impart The skill of specular stone. Donne Quicksilver may, by the fire alone, in glass vessels, be turned into a red body; and from this red body may be obtained a mercury, bright and specular as before. Boyle. A speculum of metal without glass, made some years since for optical uses, and very well wrought, produced none of those rings; and thence 1 understood that these rings arise not from the specular surface alone, but depend upon the two surfaces of the plate of glass, whereof the speculum was made, and upon the thickness of the glass beNewton. tween them. mind. Man was not meant to gape or look upward, but to have his thoughts sublime; and not only behold, but speculate their nature with the eye of the understanding. Brown SPECULATION. n. s. [speculation, Fr. from speculate.] 1. Examination by the eye; view. 2. Examiner; spy. This word is found no where else, and probably is here misprinted for speculator. They who have, as who have not, whom their great stars Throne and set high? servants Which are to France the spies and speculations, Intelligent of our state. Shakesp. King Lear. 8. Mental view; intellectual examination; contemplation. In all these things being fully persuaded, that what they did, it was obedience to the will of God, and that all men should do the like; there remained, after speculation, practice whereunto the whole world might be framed. Hooker. Thenceforth to speculations high or deep I turn'd my thoughts; and with capacious mind Consider'd all things visible. Milton. News-writers afford matter of speculation. Addis. 4. A train of thoughts formed by meditation. From him Socrates derived the principles of morality, and most part of his natural speculations. Temple. 5. Mental scheme not reduced to practice." This terrestrial globe, which before was only 3. Particular language, as distinct from round in speculation, has since been surrounded by the fortune and boldness of many navigators. Temple. This is a consideration not to be neglected, or thought an indifferent matter of mere speculation. Lesley. Power of sight. Not in use. Thy bones are marrowless; thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Thou star'st with. Shakesp SPECULATIVE. adj. [speculatif, Fr. from speculate.] 1. 2. Given to speculation; contemplative. If all other uses were utterly taken away, yet the mind of man being by nature speculative, and delighted with contemplation in itself, they were to be known even for mere knowledge sake. Hooker It encourages speculative persons, who have no turn of mind to increase their fortunes. Addison. Theoretical; notional; ideal; not prac tical. Some take it for a speculative platform, that reason and nature would that the best should govern, but nowise to create a right. Bacon's Holy War. These are not speculative flights or imaginary notions, but are plain and undeniable laws, that are founded in the nature of rational beings. Law. SPECULATIVELY. adv. [from speculative.] 1. Contemplatively; with meditation. 2. Ideally; notionally; theoretically; not practically. SPECULATOR. n. s. [from speculate.] 1. One who forms theories. More. He is dextrous in puzzling others, if they be not thorough-paced speculators in those great theories. 2. [Speculateur, Fr.] An observer; a contemplator. 3. Although lapidaries and questuary enquirers affirm it, yet the writers of minerals, and natural speculators, conceive the stones which bear this name to be a mineral concretion. A spy; a watcher. Brown. All the boats had one speculator, to give notice when the fish approached. Broome on the Odyssey. SPECULATORY. adj. [from speculate.] Exercising speculation. SPECULUM. n. s. [Lat.] A mirrour; a looking-glass; that in which representations are formed by reflection. A rough and coloured object may serve for a speculum, to reflect the artificial rainbow. Boyle on C. SPED. The pret. and part. pass. of speed. His horse full of windgalls, sped with the spaShakesp. vins, and rayed with the yellows. Barbarossa, sped of that he desired, staid not long at Constantinople, but shaped his course to wards Italy. Knolles. With all his harness soon the god was sped; His flying hat, his wings upon his heels. Dryden. SPEECH. n. s. [from speak.] 1. The power of articulate utterance; the power of expressing thoughts by vocal words. There is none comparable to the variety of instructive expressions by speech, wherewith man alone is endowed, for the communication of his thoughts. Holder on Speech. Though our ideas are first acquired by various sensations and reflections, yet we convey them to each other by the means of certain sounds, or written marks, which we call words; and a great part of our knowledge is both obtained and communicated by these meaus, which are called speech. Watts. 2. Language; words considered as expressing thoughts. Accidence. 4. others. There is neither speech nor language, but their voices are heard among them. Ps Common Prayer Any thing spoken. A plague upon your epileptick visage! Smile you my speeches as I were a fool? 5. Talk; mention. 6. Shakesp. King La The constant design of these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point 7. Declaration of thoughts. Swift 1, with leave of speech implor'd, reply'd. Miten SPEECHLESS. adj. [from speech.] 1. Deprived of the power of speaking; made mute or dumb. less. He fell down, foam'd at mouth, and was speechShaker The great god Pan hath broken his pipes, and Raleigh Apollo's priests are become speechless. A single vision transports them: it finds them in the eagerness and height of their devotion; they are speechless for the time that it continues, and prostrate when it departs. Druden Speechless with wonder, and half dead with fear. Addison. 2. Mute; dumb. I kncel'd before him; 'Twas very faintly he said, rise; dismiss'd me Thus, with his speechless hand. Shakesp. Coriolanus. From her eyes Shaker. I did receive fair speechless messages. He that never hears a word spoken, it is no won der he remains speechless; as any one must do, who from an infant should be bred up among Holder on Specch Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bu let? Have 1, in my poor and cold motion, the expedition of thought? 1 speeded hither with the Shakes, very extremest inch of possibility. If pray'rs Could alter high decrees, I to that place Would speed before thee, and be louder heard. Milton. A. Philips See where Idwall speeds! a trusty soldier. [rpedian, to grow rich, Sax.] To have good success. Timon is shrunk, indeed; And he, that's once denied, will hardly speed. Shak Now if this suit lay in Bianca's pow`r, How quickly should you speed. Shaker When first this tempter cross'd the gulph from hell, I told you then he should prevail, and speed To succeed well or ill. Milton Make me not sighted like the basilisk: I've look'd on thousands, who have sped the better By my regard, but kill'd none so.Shakesp. W.Tale. Macicaus shewed them what an offence it was rashly to depart out of the city, which might be unto them dangerous, although they should spets Knolles never so well. These were violators of the first temple; and those that profaned and abused the second, spod South no better. 4. To have any condition, good or bad. Ships heretofore in seas like fishes sped, In speech be eight parts. The mightiest still upon the smallest fed. Waller The acts of God to human ears Cannot without process of speech be told. Milton. To SPEED. v. a. 1. To dispatch in haste; to send away quickly. The tyrant's self, a thing unus'd, began Hearing so much, will speed her foot again, Shakesp. All's well that ends well. Satan, tow'rd the coast of earth beneath, Down from th' ecliptick sped with hop'd success, Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel. Milton. The priest replied no more, But sped his steps along the hoarse-resounding Dryden shore. 3. To furnish in haste. 4. To dispatch; to destroy; to kill; to mischief; to ruin. With a speeding thrust his heart he found; The lukewarm blood came rushing thro' the wound. Dryden. A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped; If foes they write, if friends they read, me dead. Pope. 5. To execute; to dispatch. Judicial acts are all those writings and matters which relate to judicial proceedings, and are sped in open court at the instance of one or both of the parties. Ayliffe's Parergon. 5. To assist; to help forward. Lucina Reach'd her midwife hands to speed the throes. Dryden. Propitious Neptune steer'd their course by night With rising gales, that sped their happy flight. Dry. Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, Aud waft a sigh from Indus to the pole. Pope. 7. To make prosperous; to make to succeed. If any bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. St. P. He was chosen, though he stood low upon the roll, by a very unusual concurrence of providential events, happened to be sped. SPEED. n. s. [spoed, Dut.] 1. Quickness; celerity. Earth receives Fell. We observe the horse's patient service at the plough, his speed upon the highway, his docibleness, and desire of glory. 2. Haste; hurry; dispatch. More. When they strain to their utmost speed, there is still the wonted distance between them and their aims all their eager pursuits bring them no acquests. Decay of Piety. 3. The course or pace of a horse. He that rides at high speed, and with a pistol kills a sparrow flying. Shakesp. Henry IV. 4. Success; event of any action or incident. The prince your son, with meer conceit and fear Of the queen's speed, is gone. O Lord, I pray thee send me good speed. Shakesp. Gen. xxiv. 12. SPEEDILY. ade. [from speedy.] With haste; quickly. Post speedily to your husband, Shew him this letter. Shakesp. King Lear. Send speedily to Bertran; charge him strictly Not to proceed. Dryden's Spanish Fryar. SPEEDINESS. n. s. [from speedy.] The quality of being speedy. SPEEDWELL. n. s. [veronica, Lat.] Fluellin. A plant. In a scarcity in Silesia a rumour was spread of its raining millet seed; but it was found to be only the seeds of the ivy-leaved speedwell, or small henbit. Derham's Physico-Theology. SPEEDY. adj. [from speed.] Quick; swift; nimble; quick of dispatch. How near 's the other army? -Near, and on speedy foot: the main descry Stands on the hourly thought. Shakesp. K. Lear. Back with speediest sail Zophiel, of cherubim the swiftest wing, Came flying. Milton's Par. Lost. Let it be enough what thou hast done, When spotted deaths ran arm'd through ev'ry Start not; her actions shall be holy : Shakesp. Winter's Tale. Some have delivered the polity of spirits, that they stand in awe of charms, spells, and conjurations, letters, characters, notes, and dashes. Brown's Vulg. Err. Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms, Had not spells And black enchantments, some magician's art, When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought, Waller. Then reach'd her midwife hands to speed the throes, And spoke the pow'rful spells that babes to birth disclose Dryden 2. A turn of work; a vicissitude of labour. A low word. Their toil is so extreme as they cannot endure it above four hours in a day, but are succeeded by spells: the residue of the time they wear out at coytes and kayles. To SPELL. v. a. pret. and part. pass. spelled or spelt. [spellen, Dut.] 1. To write with the proper letters. How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd, But she would spell him backward; if fair fac'd, She'd swear the gentleman should be her sister. Shakesp. 3. To charm. I have you fast: Unchain your spirits now with spelling charms, And try if they can gain your liberty Shak. H. VI. This, gather'd in the planetary hour, With noxious weeds, and spell'd with words of pow'r, Dire stepdames in the magic bowl infuse. Dryd. To SPELL. v. n. 1. To form words of letters. What small knowledge was, in them did dwell; And he a god who could but read or spell. Dryden. By pasting on the vowels and consonants on the sides of four dice, he has made this a play for his children, whereby his eldest son in coats has played himself into spelling. Locke. The Latin being written of the same character with the mother tongue, by the assistance of a spelling book it is legible. Spectator. Another cause which hath maiined our language, gowns, not arms, repell'd The fierce Epirote, and the African bold, Whether to settle peace, or to unfold The drift of hollow states, hard to be spell'd. Mile. And may at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, Where I may sit and rightly spell Of every star that heaven doth shew, And every herb that sips the dew. 3. To read unskilfully. Milton. As to his understanding, they bring him in void of all notion; a rude unwritten blank, sent into the world only to read and spell out a God in the works of creation. South. To SPELT. v. n. To split; to break. A bad word. Feed geese with oats, spelted beans, barley meal, or ground malt mixed with beer. Mortimer's Husb SPELTER. n. s. A kind of semi-metal. Metals in fusion do not flame, for want of a copious fume; except spelter, which fumes copious and thereby flames. Newton. ly, To SPEND. v. a. [rpendan, Sax. spendere, Ital.] 1. To consume; to exhaust; to waste. Our cannons malice vainly shall be spent Against th' invulnerable clouds. Shakesp. I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. 2 Cor. xii. 15. There is oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. Prov. xxi. 20. We must exasperate The almighty Victor to spend all his rage. Milton. Money is brought into England by nothing but spending here less of foreign commodities than Locke. what we carry to market can pay for. 2. To bestow, as expence; to expend, as In those pastoral pastimes a great many days were spent, to follow their flying predecessors. Sidney. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moJob xxi. 13. ment go down to the grave. He spends his life with his wife, and remembereth neither father nor mother. 1 Esdras, iv. 21 Say, for you saw us, ye immortal lights! How oft unwearied have we spent the nights, Till the Ledæan stars, so fam'd for love, Wonder'd at us from above. The waves ascended and descendea, till their violence being spent by degrees, they settled at Burnet's Theory of the Earth. last They bend their bows, they whirl their slings around; Heaps of spent arrows fall, and strew the ground. Dryden The winds are rais'd, the storm blows high; Be it your care, my friends, to keep it up n its full fury, and direct it right, Till it has spent itself on Cato's head. Addison's Cat. 8. To fatigue; to harass. Nothing but only the hope of spoil did relieve them, having scarce clothes to cover their nakedness, and their bodies spent with long labour and thirst. Knolles's Hist. of the Turks. Or come your shipping in your ports to lay, Spent and disabled in so long a way? Drud En. Our walls are thinly mann'd, our best men slain; The rest, an heartless number, spent with watching, And harass'd out with duty. Dryden Some spent with toil, some with despair oppress'd, Leap'd headlong from the heights; the flames conDryden's Eneid. sume the rest. Thou oft hast seen me Wrestling with vice and faction; now thou see'st me Spent, overpower'd, despairing of success. To SPEND. v. n. 1. To make expence. Addison's Cato. Henceforth your tongue must spend at lesser rate, Than in its flames to wrap a nation's fate. Dryden. He spends as a person who knows that he must come to a reckoning. South 2. To prove in the use. Butter spent as if it came from the richer soil. 3. To be lost or wasted. The sound spendeth, and is dissipated in the open air; but in such concaves it is conserved and contracted. Bacon On mountains, it may be, many dews fall, that spend before they come to the valleys. Bacon. 4. To be employed to any use. There have been cups and an image of Jupiter] made of wild vines; for the vines that they use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendeth into the grapes. Bacon SPENDER. n. s. [from spend.] 1. One who spends. Let not your recreations be lavish spenders of your time; but healthful, short, and apt to refresh Taylor. you. 2. A prodigal; a lavisher. Bishop Morton told the commissioners, who were to levy the benevolence, if they met with any that were sparing, to tell them that they must needs have, because they laid up; and if they were spenders, they must needs have, because it was seen in their port and manner of living. Bac Hen. VII. SPENDTHRIFT. n. s. [spend and thrift.] A prodigal; a lavisher." Bitter cold weather starved both the bird and the spendthrift. L'Estrange. Some fawning usurer does feed With present sums th' unwary spendthrift's need. Dryden. Most men, like spendthrift heirs, judge a little in hand better than a great deal to come. Locke The Son, bred in sloth, becon.es a spendthrift, a profligate, and goes out of the world a beggar. Swift. There is required to the preparation of the sperm of animals a great apparatus of vessels, many secretions, concoctions, reflections, and circulations. Ray. SPERM ACETI. n.s. [Lat.] Corrupt- 3. edly pronounced parmasitty. A particular sort of whale affords the oil whence this is made; and that is very improperly called sperma, because it is only the oil which comes from the head of which it can be made. It is changed from what it is naturally, the oil itself being very brown and rank. The peculiar property of it is, to shoot into flakes, not much unlike the crystallization of salts; but in this state 'tis yellow, and has a certain rankness, from which it is fred by squeezing it between warm metalline plates: at length it becomes perfectly pure, inodorous, flaky, smooth, white, and in some measure transparent. Quincy. SPERMA'TICAL. adj. [spermatique, Fr. SPERMATICK. from sperm.] When yellow sands are sifted from below, The glitt'ring billows give a golden show; And when the fouler bottoni speirs the black, The Stygian dye the tainted waters take. Dryden To eject with loathing. Keep my statutes, and commit not any of the abominations, that the land spew not you out. Lev. xviii. Contentious suits ought to be spewed out, as the surfeit of courts. Bacon's Ess To SPEW. v. n. To vomit; to ease the stomach. He could have haul'd in The drunkards, and the noises of the inn: But better 'twas that they should sleep or sper. Than in the scene to offend or him or you Bea Jon SPEWY. adj. [from spew.] Wet; foggy. A provincial word. The lower vallies in wet winters are so spey, that they know not how to feed them. Mortimer's Husbandry. The primordials of the world are not mechani-To SPHACELATE. v. a. [from sphacelus, cal, but spermatical or vital. More's Dialogues medical Lat.] To affect with a ganMetals and sundry meteors rude shapes have no need of any particular principle of life, or spermatical form, distinct from the rest or motion of the particles of the matter. More. grene. The long retention of matter sphacelates the brain. Sharp. 2. Belonging to the sperm; containing To SPHACELATE. v. n. To mortify; to The skin, by the great distention, having been rendered very thin, will, if not taken away, spha celate, and the rest degenerate into a cancerous ulSharp's Surg. SPHA'CELUS. n. s. [σPáxed; sphacele, Fr.] A gangrene; a mortification. It is the ground of inflammation, gangrene, mlacelus. Wiseman. SPHERE. n. s. [sphere, Fr. sphæra, Lat.] A globe; an orbicular body; a body of which the center is at the same distance from every point of the circumference. Aristotle affirming that women do not sperma-1. tize, and confer a receptacle, rather than essential principles of generation, deductively includes both sexes in mankind. Brown. SPERMATOCELE. n. s. [origua and enλn.] A rupture caused by the contraction of the seminal vessels, and the semen falling into the scrotum. Bailey. SPERMOʻLOGIST. n. s. [σπegμołóy.] One who gathers or treats of seeds. Dict. To SPERSE. v. a. [spersus, Lat.] To disperse; to scatter. A word not now in SPE'RABLE. adj. [sperabilis, Lat.] Such To SPEW. v. a. [rpepan, Sax speuwen, 2. 3. Any globe of the mundane system. What if within the moon's fair shining sphere, What if in every other star unseen, First the sun, a mighty sphere he fram'd, Millen. Of other worlds he happily should hear Fairy Qu. A globe representing the earth or sky. Two figures on the sides emboss'd appear; Conon, and what's his name who made the sphere, And shew'd the seasons of the sliding year. Dryd. 4. Orb; circuit of motion. Half unsung, but narrower bound Within the visible diurnal sphere. Milton 5. [From the sphere of activity ascribed to the power emanating from bodies.] Province; compass of knowledge or action; employment. To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't. Shuk. Ant. and Cleopatra. Of enemies he could not but contract good store, while moving in so high a sphere, and with so vigorous a lustre. King Charles. Every man, versed in any particular business, finds fault with these authors, so far as they treat of matters within his sphere. Addison's Freeholder. Ye know the spheres and various tasks assign'd By laws eternal to th' ætherial kind. Pape. The hermit's pray'r permitted, not approv'd, Soon in an higher sphere Eulogius mov'd. To SPHERE. v.a. |