spittal.] Hospital. It is still retained 5. Melancholy; hypochondriacal vapours. in Scotland. To the spittle go, And from the powd'ring tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind. This is it Shakesp. Henry V. 6. That makes the waned widow wed again, The spleen with sullen vapours clouds the brain, They that desire the spleen, and would die with Cure the spittle world of maladies. Cleaveland. ture of the mouth. A genius for all stations fit, Whose meanest talent is his wit: His heart too great, though fortune little, To lick a rascal statesman's spittle. SPÍTVENOM. n. s. [spit and venom.] Poison ejected from the mouth. Swift. The spitvenom of their poisoned hearts breaketh out to the annoyance of others. Hooker. SPLANCHNOLOGY. n. s. [splanchnologie, Fr. σλáyx and y.] A treatise or description of the bowels. Dict. To SPLASH. v. a. [ plaska, Swed. They have both an affinity with plash.] To daub with dirt in great quantities. SPLASHY. adj. [from splash.] Full of dirty water; apt to daub. To SPLAY. v. a. To dislocate or break a horse's shoulder bone. SPLAYFOOT. adj. [splay, or display, and foot.] Having the foot turned inward. Though still some traces of our rustic vein And splayfoot verse remain'd, and will remain. Pope. SPLAYMOUTH. n. s. [splay and mouth.] Mouth widened by design. All authors to their own defects are blind: Hadst thou but, Janus-like, a face behind, To see the people when splaymouths they make, To mark their fingers pointed at thy back, Their tongues loll'd out a foot. SPLEEN. n. s. [splen, Lat.] Dryden. 1. The milt; one of the viscera, of which the use is scarcely known. It is supposed the seat of anger, melancholy, and mirth. If the wound be on the left hypochondrium, under the short ribs, you may conclude the spleen wounded. Wiseman. 2. Anger; spite; ill humour. His solemne queen, whose spleene he was dispos'd To tempt yet further, knowing well what anger it inclos'd, And how wives anger should be us'd. If she must teem, Chapman. prived of the spleen. Animals spleened grow salacious. Arbuthnot. SPLE ENFUL. adj. [spleen and full.] Angry; peevish; fretful; melancholy. The commons, like an angry hive of bees That want their leader, scatter up and down: Myself have calm'd their spleențul mutiny. Shakesp. Henry VI. The chearful soldiers, with new stores supplied, Now long to execute their spleenful will. Dryden. If you drink tea upon a promontory that overhangs the sea, the whistling of the wind is better musick to contented minds than the opera to the spleenful. Pope. SPLEENLESS. adj. [from spleen.] Kind; gentle; mild. Obsolete. Mean time flew our ships, and streight we fetcht The syrens isle; a spleenless wind so stretcht Her wings to waft us, and so urg'd our keel. Chapm. SPLEENWORT. n. s. [spleen and wort; asplenion, Lat.] Miltwaste. A plant. The leaves and fruit are like those of the fern; but the pinuulæ are eared at their basis. Miller. Safe pass'd the gnome through this fantastic band, A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand. Pope. SPLEENY. adj. [from spleen.] Angry; peevish; humorous. What though I know her virtuous, And well deserving; yet I know her for A spleeny Lutheran, and not wholesome to Our cause. Shakesp. Henry VIII. SPLENDENT. adj. [splendens, Lat.] Shining; glossy; having lustre. They assigned them tames from some remarkable qualities, that are very observable in their red and splendent planets. Brown's Vulgar Errours. Metallick substances may, by reason of their great density, reflect all the light incident upon them, and so be as opake and splendent as it is posNewton. sible for any body to be. SPLENDID. adj. [splendide, Fr. splendidus, Lat.] Showy; magnificent; sumptuous; pompous. Unacceptable, though in heav'n, our state Milton. Of splendid vassalage. SPLENDOUR. n. s. [splendeur, Fr. splen dor, Lat.] 1. Lustre; power of shining. Splendour hath a degree of whiteness, especial y if there be a little repercussion; for a looking glass, with the steel behind, looketh whiter than Bacon's Natural History glass simple. The dignity of gold above silver is not much the splendour is alike, and more pleasing to sume eyes, as in cloth of silver Bacon's Physical Remans The first symptoms are a chilness, a certain splen dour or shining in the eyes, with a little moisture. Arbuthnot. 2. Magnificence; pomp. Romulus, being to give laws to his new Romans, found no better way to procure an esteem and reverence to them, than by first procuring it to himself by splendour of habit and retinue. South 'Tis use alone that sanctifies expence, And splendour borrows all her rays from sense. Pepe. SPLENETICK. adj. [splenetique, Fr.] Troubled with the spleen; fretful; peevish. Horace purged himself from these splenetick reflections in odes and epodes, before he undertook his satires. Dryden. This daughter silently lowers, t'other steals a kind look at you, a third is exactly well behaved, and a fourth a splenetick. You humour me when I am sick; Why not when I am splenetick? SPLENICK. adj. [splenetique, Fr. splen, Lat.] Belonging to the spleen. Suppose the spleen obstructed in its lower parts and splenick brauch, a potent heat causeth the orHarire gasmus to boil. The splenick vein hath divers cells opening into it near its extremities in human bodies; but in quadrupeds the cells open into the trunks of the splenick veins. Ray on the Creation. SPLENISH. adj. [from spleen.] Fretful; peevish. Drayton. Yourselves you must engage Somewhat to cool your splenish rage, Your grievous thirst; and to asswage That first, you drink this liquor. SPLENITIVE. adj. [from spleen.] Hot; fiery; passionate. Not in use. Take thy fingers from my throat; For though I am not splenetive and rash, Yet I have in me something dangerous. Shakesp. Hamlet. SPLENT. n. s. [or perhaps splint; spinella, Ital.] Splents is a callous hard substance, or an insensible swelling, which breeds on or adheres to the shank-bone of a horse, and, when it grows big, spoils the shape of the leg. When there is but one, it is called a single splent; but when there is another opposite to it, on the outside of the shank bone, it is called a pegged or pinned splent. Farrier's Dict. To SPLICE. v. a. [splissen, Dut. plico, Lat.] To join the two ends of a rope without a knot. SPLINT. n. s. [splinter, Dut.] Deep in a rich alcove the prince was laid, Their condition, though it look splendidly, yet, You will not admit you live splendidly, yet it How he lives and eats, He, of the royal store He was slain upon a course at tilt, one of the spinters of Montgomery's staff going in at his bever. Bacon. Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball, And now their odours arm'd against them fly; Some preciously by shatter'd porcelain fall, And some by aromatick splinters die. Dryden. . A thin piece of wood. A plain Indian fan, used by the meaner sort, made of the small stringy parts of roots, spread out in a round flat form, and so bound together with a splinter hoop, and strengthened with small bars on both sides. Grew's Museum. To SPLINTER. v. n. [from the noun.] To be broken into fragments; to be shivered. o SPLIT. v. a. pret. and part. pass. split. [spletten, splitten, Dut.] . To cleave; to rive; to divide longitudinally in two. Do 't, and thou hast the one half of my heart; Do 't not, thou split'st thine own. Shakesp. Winter's Tale. That self hand Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it; Splitted the heart. Shakesp. Antony and Cleopatra. Wert thou serv'd up two in one dish, the rather To split thy sire into a double father? Cleaveland. Cold winter split the rocks in twain. Dryden. A skull so hard, that it is almost as easy to split a helmet of iron as to make a fracture in it. Ray on the Creation. This effort is in some earthquakes so vehement, that it splits and tears the ea. ih, making cracks or chasms in it some miles. Woodward. Addison's Spectator. The seamen spied a rock, and the wind was so strong that we were driven directly upon it, and immediately split. Swif SPLITTER. n. s. [from split.] One who splits. How should we rejoice, if, like Judas the first, Those splitters of parsons in sunder should burst! Swift. SPLU'TTER. n. s. Bustle; tumult. A low word. To SPOIL. v. a. [spolio, Lat. spolier, Fr.] 1. To seize by robbery; to take away by force. 2. Oh! would it please the gods to split Thy beauty, size, and years, and wit, No age could furnish out a pair Of nymphs so graceful, wise, and fair ; With half the lustre of your eyes, With half your wit, your years, and size. Swift. 3. To dash and break on a rock. God's desertion, as a full and violent wind, drives him in an instant, not to the harbour, but on the rock where he will be irrecoverably split. Decay of Piety. Those who live by shores with joy behold Some wealthy vessel split or stranded nigh; And from the rocks leap down for shipwreck'd gold, And seek the tempests which the others fly. 4. To divide; to break into discord. Dryden. To plunder; to strip of goods: with of before the thing taken. Yielding themselves upon the Turks faith, for the safeguard of their liberty and goods, they were most injuriously spoiled of all that they had. Knolles's History of the Turks. Thou shalt not gain what I deny to yield, Nor reap the harvest, though thou spoil'st the field. Prior. My sons their old unhappy sire despise, Spoil'd of his kingdom, and depriv'd of eyes. Pope. To corrupt; to mar; to make useless. [This is properly spill; rpillan, Sax] Beware lest any man spoil you, through philosophy and vain deceit. Col. ii. 8. Spiritual pride spoils many graces. Taylor. Women are not only spoiled by this education, but we spoil that part of the world which would otherwise furnish most instances of an eminent and exalted piety. To SPOIL. v. n. 1. To practise robbery or plunder. 2. 4. The act of robbery; robbery; waste. 5. 6. The softness of thy sword, continued through thy soil, To be the only cause of unrecover'd spoils. Drayton. Go and speed! Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain. Milton. Corruption; cause of corruption. Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me. Shakesp. The slough; the cast-off skin of a serpent. Shakes, the rather for the casting of their spoil, live till they be old. Bacon. SPOILER. n. s. [from spoil.] 1. A robber; a plunderer; a pillager. Such ruin of her manners Rome Ben Jonson's Cataline. Providence, where it loves a nation, concerns itself to own and assert the interest of religion, by blasting the s oilers of religious persons and places. South. Came you then here, thus far, thro' waves, to To waste, to plunder, out of mere compassion? A. Phillips. 2. One who mars or corrupts any thing. SPO'ILFUL. adj. [spoil and full.] Wasteful; rapacious. Having oft in battle vanquished Those spoilful Picts, and swarming Easterlings Long time in peace his realin established. Fairy Queen. SPOKE. n. s. [rpaca, Sax. speiche, Germ.] The bar of a wheel that passes from the nave to the felly. Law. SPOKE. E gland was infested with robbers and outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil. Spenser. They which hate us spoil for themselves. Psalm xliv. 14. To grow useless; to be corrupted. He that gathered a hundred bushels of acorns or apples, had thereby a property in them: he was only to look that he used them before they spoiled, else he robbed others. Locke. SPOIL. n. s. [spolium, Lat.] 1. That which is taken by violence; that which is taken from an enemy; plunder; pillage; booty. South. 2. 1. To burst in sunder; to crack; to suffer disruption. A huge vessel of exceeding hard marble split asunder by congealed water. The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword; For I have loaden me with many spoils, Using no other weapon but his name. Shakesp. Henry VI. That which is gained by strength or effort. But grant our hero's hopes long toil And comprehensive genius crown, Boyle. What is 't to me, 3. W..o never sail on her unfaithful sea, Each science and each art his spoil, Yet what reward, or what renown? Bentley That which is taken from another. Gentle gales, If storms arise and clouds grow black, If the mast splint and threaten wrack? Dryden. Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Swift. The preterite of speak.. SPOKEN. Participle passive of speak. 2 Kings, iv. 13. The original of these signs for communication is found in viva voce, in spoken language. Holder on Speech. s. [spoke and man.] One who speaks for another. SPOKESMAN. n. "Tis you that have the reason. -To do what' Dict. -To be a spokesman from Madam Silvia. Shakesp. He shall be thy spokesman unto the people. Exod. iv. 16. To SPOLIATE. v. a. [spolio, Lat.] To rob; to plunder. SPOLIATION. n. s. [spoliation, Fr. spoli atio, Lat.] The act of robbery or privation. An ecclesiastical benefice is sometimes void de jure & facto, and sometimes de facto, and not de jure; as when a man suffers a spoliation by his own Auliffe's Parergon. SPO'NDEE. n. s. [spondée, Fr. spondæus, Lat.] A foot of two long syllables. act. We see in the choice of the words the weight of the stone, and the striving to heave it up the mountain Homer clogs the verse with spondees and leaves the vowels open. 'Broome. SPONDYLE. n. s. [σwerden; spondile, Fr. spondylus, Lat.] A vertebra; a joint of the spine. It hath for the spine or back-bone a cartilaginous substance, without any spondyles, processes, Brown. or protuberances. SPONGE. n. s. [spongia, Lat.] A soft porous substance, supposed by some the nidus of animals. It is remarkable for sucking up water. It is too often written See SPUNGE. spunge. Sponges are gathered from the sides of rocks, Bacon. being as a large but tough moss. They opened and washed part of their sponges. Sandys Great officers are like sponges: they suck till they are full, and, when they come once to be squeezed, their very heart's blood comes away. L'Estrange. To SPONGE. v. a. [from the noun.] To blot; to wipe away as with a sponge. Except between the words of translation and the mind of Scripture itself there be contradiction, very little difference should not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily to be spunged out. Hooker. To suck in as a To SPONGE. v. n. sponge; to gain by mean arts. The ant lives upon her own, honestly gotten;| whereas the fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast, that spunges upon other people's trenL'Estrange. chers. Here wont the dean, when he 's to seek, To spunge a breakfast once a week. SPONGER. n. s. [from sponge] Swift. One who hangs for a maintenance on others. A generous rich man, that kept a splendid and open table, would try which were friends, and which only trencher-flies, and spungers. L'Estrange. SPO'NGINESS. n. s. [from spongy.] Softness, and fulness of cavities, like a sponge. The lungs are exposed to receive all the droppings from the brain'; a very fit cistern, because of their spunginess. Harvey. SPO'NGIOUS. adj. [spongieux, Fr. from sponge.] Full of small cavities, like a sponge. All thick bones are hollow or spongeons, and contain an oleaginous substance in little vesicles, which by the heat of the body is exhaled through these bones to supply their fibres. Cheyne. SPONGY. adj. [from sponge.] 1. Soft and full of small interstitial holes. The lungs are the most spungy part of the body, and therefore ablest to contract and dilate itself. Bacon's Natural History. A spongy excrescence groweth upon the roots of the laser-tree, and upon cedar, very white, light, and friable, called agarick. Bacon's Nat. History. The body of the tree being very spongy within, though hard without, they easily contrive into canoes. More. Into earth's spungy veins the ocean sinks, Those rivers to replenish which he drinks. Denh. Return, unhappy swain! The spungy clouds are fill'd with gathʼring rain. Dryden. Her bones are all very spongy, and more remarkably those of a wild bird, which flies much, and long together. Grew. SPO NSION. n. s. [sponsio, Lat.] The act of becoming surety for another. SPONSOR. n. s. [Lat.] A surety; one who makes a promise or gives security for another. In the baptism of a male there ought to be two males and one woman, and in the baptism of a female child two women and one man; and these are called sponsors or sureties for their education in the true christian faith. Ayliffe's Parergon. And it shall be as all the ocean, Or o'er cold coffee trifle with the spoon, Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon. Popt SPOONBILL. n. s. [spoon and bill; plates, Lat.] A bird. The shoveller, or spoonbill; the former name the more proper, the end of the hill being broad like a shovel, but not concave like a spoon, but per fectly flat. Grew's Mustun The sponsor ought to be of the same station with Ducks and geese have such long broad bis to Broome. the person to whom he becomes surety. quaffer in water and mud; to which we may reckon the bill of the spoonbill. Harte. Derham's Physico-Theology SPOONFUL. n. s. [spoon and full.] 1. As much as is generally taken at once in a spoon. A medical spoonful is half The rash hermit, who with impious pray'r Had been the sponsor of another's care. SPONTANEITY. n. s. spontaneitas, school Lat. spontaneité, Fr. from spontaneous.] Voluntariness; willingness; accord uncompelled. Necessity and spontaneity may sometimes meet together, so may spontaneity and liberty; but real necessity and true liberty can never. Bramhall against Hobbes. Strict necessity they simple call; It so binds the will, that things foreknown By spontaneity, not choice, are done. Dryden. SPONTANEOUS. adj. [spontanée, Fr. from sponte, Lat.] Voluntary; not compelled; acting without compulsion or restraint; acting of itself; acting of its own accord. Many analogal motions in animals, though I cannot call them voluntary, yet I see them spontaneous: I have reason to conclude, that these are Hale. not simply mechanical. They now came forth While John for nine-pins does declare, Milton. Prior. Both legs and arms spontaneous move, Which was the thing I meant to prove. Begin with sense, of ev'ry art the soul, Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole; Spontaneous beauties all around advance, Start ev'n from difficulty, strike from chance; Nature shall join you, time shall make it grow. Pope. SPONTANEOUSLY. adv. [from spontaneous.] Voluntarily; of its own accord. This would be as impossible as that the lead of an edifice should naturally and spontaneouly mount up to the root, while lighter materials employ themselves beneath it. Bentley. Whey turns spontaneously acid, and the curd into cheese as hard as a stone. Arbuthnot on Aliments. SPONTANEOUSNESS. n. s. [from spontaneous.] Voluntariness; freedom of will; accord unforced. The sagacities and instincts of brutes, the spontaneousness of many of their animal motions, are not explicable, without supposing some active determinate power connexed to and inherent in their spirits, of a higher extraction than the bare natural modification of matter. Hale's Origin of Mankind. SPOOL. n. s. [spuhl, Germ. spohl, Dut.] A small piece of cane or reed, with a knot at each end; or a piece of wood turned in that form to wind yarn upon; a quill. 2. Wet; drenched; soaked; full like a To SPOOM. v. n. [probably from spume, or foam, as a ship driven with violence spumes, or raises a foam.] To go on swiftly. A sea term. a spoon. Wiseman. We prescribed a slender diet, allowing only spoonmeats. Wretched Are mortals born to sleep their lives away! Go back to what thy infancy began, Eat pap and spoonmeat; for thy gugaws cry, Be sullen, and refuse the lullaby. Dryden's Persius Diet most upon spoonmeats, as veal or cock broths. Harvey SPO'ONWORT. n. s. Scurvygrass. Spoonwort was there, scorbutics to supply; And centaury, to clear the jaundic'd eye." Harte. To SPOON. v. n. In sea language, when a ship, being under sail in a storm, cannot bear it, but is obliged to put right before the wind. Bailey. SPORADICAL. adj. [σwogadinòs; spora dique, Fr.] is A sporadical disease is an endemial disease, what in a particular season affects but few people. Arbuthnot. SPORT. n. s. [spott a make-game, Island.] 1. Play; diversion; game; frolick and tumultuous merriment. Her sports were such as carried riches of know. ledge upon the stream of delight. Sidney As flies to wanton boys, are we to th' gods; They kill us for their sport. Shakesp. King Lear. When their hearts were merry, they said, Cal for Samson, that he may make us sport; and they called for him, and he made them sport. Judges, xvi. 25 As a mad-man who casteth fire-brands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not 1 in sport? Prov. xxvi. 18, 19. The discourse of fools is irksome, and their spert is in the wantonness of sin. Ecclus. xxvii. 13. 2. Mock; contemptuous mirth. When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale, My heaving wishes help to fill the sail. Dryden. SPOON. n. s. [spaen, Dut. spone, Dan. 3. spoonn, Island.] A concave vessel with a handle, used in eating liquids. Wouldst thou drown thyself, Put but a little water in a spoon, If 1 suspect without cause, why then make sport Shakesp at me, then let me be your jest. They had his messengers in derision, and made a sport of his prophets. 1 Esdr. i. 51. To make sport with his word, and to endeavour to render it ridiculous, by turning that holy book into raillery, is a direct affront to God. Tillotson That with which one plays. Each on his rock transfix'd, the sport and prey Of wrecking whirlwinds. Commit not thy prophetick mind Milen Some grave their wrongs on marble; he, more just, toop'd down screne, and wrote them on the dust, wept from the earth, and totted from his mind; An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage, would meet with small a›Brown. lause. Diversion of the field, as of fowling, hunting, fishing. Now for our mountain sport, up to yon hill, Your legs are young. Shakesp. Cymbeline. The king, who was excessively affected to huntng, and the sports of the field, had a great desire o make a great park, for red as well as fallow deer, between Richmond and Hampton Court, Clarendon. SPORT. v. a. [from the noun.] The poor man wept and bled, cried and prayed, while they sported themselves in his pain, and delighted in his prayers, as the argument of their victory. Sidney. Away with him, and let her sport herself With that she's big with. Shak. Winter's Tale. Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Isaiah, Ivii. 4. What pretty stories these are for a man of his seriousness to sport himself withal! Atterbury. Let such writers go on at their dearest peril, and sport themselves in their own deceivings. Watts. To represent by any kind of play. Now sporting on the lyre thy love of youth, Now virtuous age and venerable truth; Expressing justly Sappho's wanton art Of odes, and Pindar's more majestick part. Dryd. o SPORT. v. n. . To play; to frolick; to game; to wan ton. They, sporting with quick glance, Milton. If any man turn religion into raillery, by bold jests, he renders himself ridiculous, because he sports with his own life. Tillotson. SPORTFUL. adj. [sport and full.] 2. Ludicrous; done in jest. Shak. We must not hope wholly to change their original tempers; nor make the gay pensive and grave, nor the melancholy sportive, without spoil-To SPOT. v. a. [from the noun.] ing them. 1. To mark with discolorations; to maculate. Locke. No wonder savages or subjects slain, n. s. Shall I conclude her to be simple, that has her Manilius lets us know the pagan hunters had The bishops, who consecrated the ground, had Dryden. 2. A taint; a disgrace; a reproach; a 3. fault. Yet Chloe sure was form'd without a spot 'Tis true, but something in her was forgot. Pope. Let him take thee, And hoist thee up to th' shouting plebeians; Milton. 4. A small extent of place. His highness, even in such a slight and sportful damage, had a noble sense of just dealing. Wotton. Behold your own Ascanius, while he said, He drew his glitt'ring helmet from his head, In which the youth to spotful arms he led. Dryd. They are no sportful productions of the soil, but did once belong to real and living fishes; seeing each of them doth exactly resemble some other shell on the sea-shore. Bentley. A catalogue of this may be had in Albericus Gentilis, which, because it is too sportful, 1 forbear to mention. Baker. SPORTFULLY. adv. Wantonly; merrily. SPO'RTFULNESS. n. s. [from sportful.] [from sportful.] That spot to which I point is Paradise, Milton. He who, with Plato, shall place beatitude in the knowledge of God, will have his thoughts raised to other contemplations than those who looked not beyond this spot of earth, and those perishing things in it. Locke. About one of these breathing passages is a spot of myrtles, that flourish within the steam of these Addison vapours. He that could make two ears of corn grow upon Wantonness; play; merriment; frolick. 5. Any particular place. The otter got out of the river, and inweeded himself so, as the ladies lost the further marking of his sportfulness. Sidney. SPORTIVE. adj. [from sport.] Gay; merry; frolick; wanton; playful; ludicrous. VOL. II. I would be busy in the world, and learn; Here Adrian fell upon that fatal spot Dryden. Granville. They are polluted off rings, more abhorr'd Have you not seen a handkerchief, But serpents now more amity maintain; I counted the patches on both sides, and found To corrupt; to disgrace; to taint. This vow receive, this vow of God maintain, My virgin life no spotted thoughts shall stain. Sid. The people of Armenia have retained the christian faith from the time of the apostles; but at this day it is spotted with many absurdities. Abbot's Description of the World, SPOTLESS. adj. [from spot.] 1. Free from spots. 2. Free from reproach or impurity; immaculate; pure; untainted. As man and wife, being two, are one in love, So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, To make divorce of their incorporate league. Shak. The amorous bird of night Milton Sung spousal, and bid haste the ev'ning star, Etherial musick did her death prepare, Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air: A radiant light did her crown'd temples gild. Dry. SPOUSE. n. s. [sponsa, sponsus, Lat. espouse, Fr.] One joined in marriage; a husband or wife. She is of good esteem; Shak At once, Farewel, O faithful spouse! they said; At once th' encroaching rinds their closing lips invade. Dryden. SPOU'SED. adj. [from the noun.] Wedded; espoused; joined together as in matrimony. They led the vine To wed her elm; she spous'd about him twines Her marriageable arms. Milton. SPOU'SELESS. adj. [from spouse.] Want ing a husband or wife. To tempt the spouseless queen with am'rouswiles, Resort the nobles from the neighb'ring isles. Pope. SPOUT. n s. [from spuyt, Dut.] 1. A pipe, or mouth of a pipe or vessel, out of which any thing is poured. She gasping to begin some speech, her eyes Became two spouts. Shakesp. Winter's Tale. In whales that breathe, lest the water should get unto the lungs, an ejection thereof is contrived by a fistula or spout at the head Brown's Vulgar Err If you chance it to lack, Be it claret or sack, No hands could force it thence, so fixt it stood, Till out it rush'd, expell'd by streams of spouting blood. Dryden It spouts up out of deep wells, and flies forth at the tops of them, upon the face of the ground Woodward. Thomson's Autumn. All the glittering hill Is bright with spouting rills. SPRAG. adj. Vigorous; spritely. A provincial word. A go d sprag memory. Shakesp. Merry Wives. To SPRAIN. v. a. [corrupted from strain.] To stretch the ligaments of a joint without dislocation of the bone. Should the big last extend the shoe too wide, The sudden turn may stretch the swelling vein, Thy cracking joint unhinge, or ancle sprain. Gay. SPRAIN. n. s. [from the verb.] Extension of the ligaments without dislocation of the joint. 2. Her cheeks their freshness lose and wontedgrace, And an unusual paleness spreads her face. Grans To cover over. 3. I was in pain, and thought it was with some sprain at tennis. Temple. SPRAINTS. n. s. The dung of an otter. Dict. 4. SPRANG The preterite of spring. SPRAT. n. s. [sprot, Dut. sarda, Lat.] So oft, in feasts with costly changes clad, All-saints do lay for porke and sowse, 1. To struggle, as in the convulsions of In this single cathedral, the very spouts are loaded with ornaments. Addison on Italy.2. From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide, And China's earth receives the smoking tide. Pope. 2. Water falling in a body; a cataract, such as is seen in the hot climates, when clouds sometimes discharge all their water at once. Not the dreadful spout, Which shipmen do the hurricano call, Constring'd in mass by the almighty sun Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear In his descent, than shall my prompted sword Falling on Diomede. Shak. Troilus and Cressida. The force of these notions pressing more in some places than in others, there would fall not showers, but great spouts or cascades of water Burnet's Theory of the Earth. To SPOUT. v. a. [from the noun.] To pour with violence, or in a collected body, as from a spout. We will bear home that lusty blood again, Which here we came to spout against your town. Shak I intend two fountains, the one that sprinkleth or spouteth water, the other a fair receipt of water. Bacor. death. Hang the child, that he may see it sprawl; A sight to vex the father's soul. Shakesp. Some lie sprawling on the ground, With many a gash and bloody wound. Hudibr. To tumble or creep with much agita tion and contortion of the limbs. The birds were not fledged; but, upon sprawling and struggling to get clear of the flame, down they tumbled. L'Estrange. Telamon hap'd to meet A rising root that held his fasten'd feet; His brother from the wooden gyves unbound. Dry. He arose from kneeling, with his hands spread up to heaven, and he blessed the congregation. 1 Kings, viii. 54. The stately trees fast spread their branches. Mila Deep in a rich alcove the prince was laid, Fast by his side Pisistratus lay spread, In age his equal, on a splendid bed. Pope To publish; to divulge; to disseminate. They, when departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. Matthew, ix. 31 To emit as effluvia or emanations; to diffuse. They spread their bane. Their course thro' thickest constellations held, Milton To SPREAD. v. n. To extend or expand itself. Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle? Job, xxxvi. 9. The princes of Germany had but a dull fear of the greatness of Spain, upon a general apprehen sion only of their spreading and ambitious designs Bacon Plants, if they spread much, are seldom tall. Bacon Great Pan, who wont to chase the fair, And lov'd the spreading oak, was there. Addis. Cate The valley opened at the farther end, spreading forth into an immense ocean. Addison SPREAD. n. s. [from the verb.] 1. Extent; compass. Hence, long before the child can crawl, He learns to kick, and wince, and sprawl Prior. Did the stars do this feat once only, which gave beginning to human race? who were there then in the world, to observe the births of those first men, and calculate their nativities, as they sprawled 2. Bentley. out of ditches? He ran, he leapt into a flood, There sprawl'd a while, and scarce got out, All cover'd o'er with slime. Swift. SPREADER. n. s. [from spread. SPRAY. n. s. [of the same race with 1. One that spreads. sprit and sprout.] 1. The extremity of a branch. At sight whereof each bird that sits on spray, And every beast that to his den was fled, Come forth afresh out of their late dismay, And to the light lift up their drooping head. Hubberd's Tale. By conforming ourselves we should be spreader of a worse infection than any we are likely to draw from papists, by our conformity with them in ce remonies. Hooker. 2. Publisher; divulger; disseminator. If it be a mistake, I desire 1 may not be accused for a spreader of false news. Su ft. |