▪ I. † spawl, n. Obs.
Also 7 spaul.
[f. spawl v.]
Spittle.
| 1642 H. More Song of Soul iii. 77 Lastly into his mouth with filthy spaul He spot. 1646 J. Hall Poems, To young Authour, The well drench'd smoaky Jew, That stands in his own spaul above the shooe. 1693 Dryden Persius ii. 63 Th' obscene old Grandam..first of Spittle a Lustration makes: Then in the Spawl her middle-finger dips. |
▪ II. spawl
var. spall n. and v., spauld.
▪ III. spawl, v. Obs. exc. arch.
(spɔːl)
Forms: 6 spal, 7, 9 spall; 7 spaule, 7–9 spaul; 6– spawl, 7 spawle.
[Of obscure origin; both date and form are against direct connexion with OE. spáld spold.]
1. intr. To spit copiously or coarsely; to expectorate.
| 1607 Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe v. i, Pray spawle in another roome: fie, fie, fie. 1649 W. M. Wander. Jew (1857) 23 He..so spawles, and drivells, he has almost made a puddle where he stands. 1730 Swift Traulus Wks. 1755 IV. i. 122 Why must he sputter, spawl, and slaver it In vain against the people's fav'rite? 1755 Connoisseur No. 95 ¶11, I began to spawl, and sputter, and keck. [1864 Browning Dram. Pers., Sludge 200 He may strut and fret his hour, Spout, spawl, or spin his target, no one cares!] |
| fig. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe Wks. (Grosart) V. 286 Our Norwich now..was a poore fisher towne, and the sea spawled and springed vp to her common stayres. |
b. Coupled with spit.
| 1598 E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 20 Talke bawdery and Chrestina spets and spals. 1609 Markham Famous Whore (1868) 41 Now are my faculties..to cough, to spaule, to spit, to raile. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 170 Sotting and smoaking ten or twenty Pipes of Tobacco in a day,..and spitting and spawling. 1721 Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 39 (1726) I. 49 The fellow..fell a spitting and spawling about the room. 1793 Laity's Direct. 20 The unclean trick of hawking, spitting or spawling about the chapel. |
c. Const. with preps., as at, on. Also fig.
| 1635 Quarles Embl. iii. ii, To spit and spaul upon his Sun-bright face. 1638 Mayne Lucian (1664) 84 He presently grows disdainfull, and Spawles at me. 1659 Brough Sacr. Princ. 405 Nor shouldst thou more spaul on His Name, then spit in His Face. |
2. trans. To utter in a coarse manner.
| 1616 Earle Elegy on Beaumont B.'s Wks. 1905 I. p. xxxiii, Such mouthes,..That twixt a whiffe, a Line or two rehearse, And with their Rheume together spaule a Verse. 1794 Gifford Baviad (1811) 46 And itching grandams spawl lascivious odes. |
Hence ˈspawler, a spitter; ˈspawling ppl. a.
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. Furies 402 The spawling Empiem..With foule impostumes fils his hollow chest. 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xxxviii. (1632) 120 This man whom..thou seest.., flegmatike, squalide and spauling. 1611 Cotgr., Cracheur, a spitter, spawler, spatterer. |