▪ I. spirtle, n.
(ˈspɜːt(ə)l)
[Cf. next.]
A small spirt or jet; a sprinkle.
| 1881 in Evans Leic. Gloss. 251. 1892 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 115 Out of the grass, on a sudden, broke A spirtle of fire, a whorl of smoke. |
▪ II. spirtle, v. Now dial.
(ˈspɜːt(ə)l)
Also 7 spertle.
[f. spirt v.1 + -le.]
1. trans. To sprinkle, spatter, or splash with something. Also fig.
| 1603 Drayton Odes (1619) xi. 28, I creepe behind the Time From spertling [= being spirtled] with their Crime. 1610–1 J. Davies (Heref.) Paper's Compl. Wks. (Grosart) II. 76/1 He scraped mee With Pens that spirtled me with Villany. 1854– in midland and western glossaries. |
2. To cause to spatter or splash; to disperse in small particles.
| 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. ii. 283 The braines and mingled blood were spertled on the wall. 1704 Phil. Trans. XXV. 1786, I suppose from some of the fouled Oyl of the Pump spirtled on the Wheels. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. i. iv. 34 The Terraqueous Globe..would by the centrifugal force of that Motion, be soon dissipated, and spirtled into the circumambient Space. 1749 W. Ellis Sheph. Guide 117 A sharp rain that so bashes the earth and spirtles it upon the grass as to cause a rot on..sheep. |
3. intr. To become dispersed or scattered.
| 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 7 Without which Power this Globe of ours would spirtle into ten thousand Millions of Pieces. |