▪ I. † ˈspitter1 Obs.
[See spittard above. The form corresponds to G. spiesser (also spiesshirsch, spitzhirsch, = older Flem. spieshert, Du. spithert).]
A young deer with simple unbranched horns; a brocket or pricket; = spittard.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Subulo, an harte hauynge hornes without tines, called a Spitter. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. x. (1593) 238 This goodlie spitter being void of dread..did haunt mens houses. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 336 The lungs of a red Deer, especially the Spitter of that kind. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xiv. 128 In others [sc. beasts] plaine and uniforme, without Tines, as in Spitters. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Isagoge B j, The hornes, in the stagge are ramous, simple in the spitter, palmate in others, ramous, and little in roes. |
▪ II. spitter2
(ˈspɪtə(r))
[f. spit v.2]
1. One who spits or ejects saliva. Also fig.
| 1382 Wyclif Isaiah l. 6 My face I turnede not awei fro the blameres, and the spitteres in me. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 186 Melancholy men are all of them..great Spitters. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 239 The Splenetics are great Spitters. 1750 H. Walpole Lett. to Mann (1833) II. 344 He would not see them, but wrote to the Spitter (or as he is now called, Lord Gob'em,) to say, that he had affronted him very grossly before company. 1869 J. G. Wood Bible Anim. 554 Buxtorf, however, explains the word ['akshūb, adder] as the Spitter. |
† 2. A pea-shooter. Obs.—1
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 82/1 Shooting in [= with] a trunk staffer [sic] or spitter. |
3. U.S. Baseball. = spitball 2.
| 1908 Baseball Mag. July 7/2, I found by holding the ball with my finger tips and steadying it with my thumb alone I could get a peculiar break to it... It is not a ‘spitter’. 1975 New Yorker 14 Apr. 98/2 The next pitch broke down sharply over the plate, and everyone cried, ‘Spitter! Hey, a spitter!’ |
▪ III. ˈspitter3 Now dial.
[f. spit v.3]
1. A spade or spud.
| 1600 F. Walker tr. Span. Mandeville 69 Commaunding certaine men to digge with spytters, they found..vnder the grounde a graue. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Spade or Spitter, (among Husband-men) a Tool to dig the Ground with. 1825 Jennings Obs. Dial. W. Eng. 71 Spitter, a small tool with a long handle, used for cutting up weeds, thistles, &c. Ibid. 72 To move the earth lightly with a spade or spitter. |
2. A spademan; a delver or digger.
| 1648 Hexham ii, Een Kley-steker, a digger or spitter of Clay. Ibid., Een Spader, a Delver, a Spademan, a Spitter. 1728 Phil. Trans. XXXV. 568 As soon as the Digger or Spitter has gone once the Breadth of the Ridge, he begins again at the other Side. |
▪ IV. ˈspitter4 rare—0.
[f. spit v.1]
‘One who puts meat on a spit’ (Johnson, 1755).