woodspeck dial.
(ˈwʊdspɛk)
Also 6 -spike, 9 -spack.
[See wood n.1 and speck n.3 Cf. woodspite.]
A woodpecker.
| 15.. Woodspecke [see speck n.3]. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 25 Euery suche leafe or pricke [of Juniper] is very like vnto y⊇ ende of the tonge of an hueholl or wodspike. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. xiv. (1593) 330 On the head thereof were garlands store, And eke a woodspecke. 1601 Holland Pliny xxx. xvi. II. 399 As many as have about them the bill of a woodspeck when they come to take hony out of the hive, shall not be stung by bees. 1847 Halliwell, Woodspack, a woodpecker. 1885 [see woodspite]. |