▪ I. † spile, n.1 Obs. rare.
[Related to spile v.1 Cf. OFris., OS., OHG. spil (G. spiel, dial. spil, Du. spel, etc.).]
Sport, play. (In fig. senses: cf. spile v.1 1 b.)
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2977 Polheuedes, and froskes, & podes spile Bond harde egipte folc in sile [? read file = filth]. Ibid. 3462 Ðe ðridde daiȝes morȝe quile, ðunder and leuene made spile. |
▪ II. spile, n.2
(spaɪl)
Also 7 spyle.
[a. MDu. or MLG. spīle (Du. dial., WFris., and LG. spile; Du. spijl, NFris. spīl, G. speil), splinter, wooden pin or peg, skewer, etc.]
1. north. dial. and † Sc. A splinter, chip, or narrow strip, of wood; a spill.
| 1513 Douglas æneid ix. ix. 42 Sum stekyt throu the cost with spilis of tre Lay gaspand. 1540 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. VII. 486 For glew, to glew on the spilis upoun ane patrown of ane gun. 1634 Lowe's Chirurg. (ed. 3) 111 The tumor being opened,..you must separate the [membrane]..gently from the flesh, either with your Spyle or other fit instrument proper to pull it out. 1671 Skinner Etymol. Ling. Angl. s.v., A Spile or Spill. 1838 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 242/2 Two wedges made out of one piece, and two spiles. Ibid., He..drives in a wooden spile, which immediately stops the leak. 1869 Peacock Lonsdale Gloss. 79/1 Spile, a splinter. 1894 Heslop Northumbld. Gloss. 677 Thor's a spile run into ma finger. |
2. a. A small plug of wood for stopping the vent of a cask; a vent-peg; a spigot. Chiefly dial.
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. 573 Have near the Bung-hole a little Vent-hole stopp'd with a Spile. 1796– in many dial. glossaries. 1832 Marryat N. Forster v, He knelt to pull out the spile. 1896 Sun 11 Dec. 3/2 A number of spiles for extracting spirit from casks. |
| fig. 1836 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xvi, This Province is like that are tree;..and if they don't drive in a spile and stop the everlastin flow of the sap, it will perish altogether. |
b. N.Amer. A small wooden or metal spout for conducting sap from the sugar-maple.
| 1844 Knickerbocker XXIII. 444 The spiles you see sticking from sugar-holes in every maple. 1868 Amer. Naturalist Mar. 39 He remembers very distinctly making ‘spiles’ of its [sc. elder] stems when tapping sugar-trees. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2268/1 A notch is cut by an axe in the tree above the spile. 1879 Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey 9 The bees get their first taste of sweet from the sap as it flows from the spiles. 1947 K. M. Wells Owl Pen 89 It is time..to get the rusty spiles and sap buckets down from the beams in the woodshed. It is maple syrup time. 1973 L. Russell Everyday Life Colonial Canada xi. 144 The operator drilled a hole into the side of the [maple tree] trunk..and set into this a small wooden spout called a spile. |
3. techn. (See quot. and cf. spill n.1 3.)
| 1750 T. R. Blanckley Nav. Expos. 156 Spiles are small Wood Pins, which are drove into the Nail-holes, when a Ship's Sheathing is taken off. [Hence in some later nautical Dicts.] |
4. attrib. and Comb., as spile-borer, spile-hole, spile-peg, spile-tap.
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Spile-hole, the air-hole in a cask. Spile-peg, the wooden peg closing the hole for the admission of air into a cask when it is tapped. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2268/1 Spile-borer, an auger-bit to bore out stuff for spiles. 1885 Whitby Times 31 July 2/6 Bar, &c.—Trays, waiters,..screws, spring spile taps, crushers. |
▪ III. spile, n.3
(spaɪl)
Also 6 Sc. spyl-.
[app. an alteration of pile n.1 after prec. or by wrong analysis of combs.]
1. a. = pile n.1 3.
| 1513 Douglas æneid ix. x. 20 Aschame ȝe nocht..To be inclosit amyd a fald of stakis, And be assegit..With akyn spyllis and dikis on syk wys? 1614 in Trans. Cumbld. & Westmoreld. Antiq. & Archæol. Soc. (1912) 244 [Some of the] spiles [which had been placed at the king's charges for defence of the sea]. 1829 [see spile v.3]. 1851 H. Melville Whale ix, Another runs to read the bill that's stuck against the spile on the wharf. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 351 A spile, pointed with iron, six inches in diameter, and twenty feet long, is set upon the stump by a diver. Ibid., In very large stumps, the spile is often driven till its top reaches the water. 1878 N. H. Bishop Voy. Paper Canoe 115 The government is building a remarkable pier of solid iron spiles, three abreast. |
b. (See quot.)
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Spile, a wedge of wood stoutly pointed with iron, used in clay or gravel pits, lime⁓stone quarries, etc., to let down large quantities at once. |
c. Mining. A sharp-pointed post used in sinking by means of cribs.
| 1841 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. IV. 293/1 Supposing..the sand five fathoms..in depth,..and the length of the spiles six feet. Ibid., The five rounds of spiles and cribs..will take up 10 feet of the diameter of the pit. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 231 Spiles, narrow-pointed tubbing wedges. |
d. attrib. and Comb., as spile-driver, spile-pier, spile-worm.
| 1865 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 393/1 By means of a spiledriver, an iron pipe..is driven down until it rests upon the solid rock. 1894 Harper's Mag. Jan. 422 The operation of a spile⁓driver at Plymouth docks. 1895 Funk's Stand. Dict., Spile-worm, a ship-worm; teredo. 1898 Kipling Day's Work 2 An overhead-crane travelled..along its spile-pier. |
† 2. = pile n.1 2 b. Obs.—1
| 1649 J. Ellistone tr. Boehme's Ep. xv. 133 Yet what God will, be done; as many a spile of grass perisheth when the Heaven giveth not its raine. |
▪ IV. † spile, v.1 Obs.
In 1 spilian, 3 spilien, spelien, spilen, 4 spyle-.
[OE. spilian, = OFris. spilia (WFris. spylje), OS. spilôn (MLG. and MDu., LG. and Du. spelen), OHG. spilôn, spilên (MHG. spilen, spiln, G. spielen); Icel. spila, Norw. and Sw. spela, Da. spille, are from LG.]
1. intr. To sport or play; to rejoice.
| a 1000 Institutes of Polity in Thorpe Laws (1840) II. 322 [Hi] lufiað..idele blisse..& ealne dæᵹ fleardiað, spelliað & spiliað, & næniᵹe note dreoᵹað. a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. (1883) 45 Eowra leoda, þe spiliað and pleᵹað and rædes ne hedað. c 1205 Lay. 13816 Þer he mid his hirede hæhliche spilede. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2532 God leue hem in his blisse spilen Among engeles & seli men. c 1315 Shoreham v. 89 Elizbeth wel þat aspyde, Hou a spylede onder hyre syde, And made hys reioyynge. |
b. To play havoc, do damage. (Cf. spile n.1)
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3183 Oc ðe [h]ail haueð so wide spiled, ðat his graue is ðor-vnder hiled. |
¶ 2. trans. and intr. To say; to speak.
Freq. in Layamon, through confusion with spellien spell v.1 (cf. the first quot. in sense 1 above).
| c 1205 Lay. 14102 Ofte heo stilledliche spækeð, & spilieð mid runen, of twam ȝunge monnen. Ibid. 14316 What weoren þat speche þe þat maide spilede. |
▪ V. spile, v.2
(spaɪl)
[f. spile n.2 Cf. NFris. spīle, G. speilen, to fix or fit with spiles.]
1. trans. To stop up (a hole) by means of a spile. Also with up.
| 1691 T. H[ale] Account New Invent. p. xxii, Nail-holes, which they use to spile up at stripping. Ibid. 45 They were forced to..spile the Spike-holes. 1837 in Civil. Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 242/1 If there should be a defect in the joint it must be made afresh, as it can neither be spiled as a wooden joint, nor set up as a lead joint. |
2. To draw (liquid) from a cask by spiling or broaching. Now dial.
| 1772 in J. Tomlinson Doncaster (1887) 237 Going to Rossington to Spile the Court Ale. a 1904 in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., I never spiled the beer. |
3. To provide (a cask, tree, etc.) with a spile, in order to draw off liquid. Now dial. or U.S.
| 1832 Marryat N. Forster v, I've spiled them, and they prove to be puncheons of rum. 1836 ― Midsh. Easy xiv, Then one of the casks of wine was spiled. 1879– in dial. glossaries (e. Anglia, s.w. Lincs., Cumbld., etc.). 1904 G. Atherton Rulers of Kings ix. 33 Of course the trees have to be spiled. |
▪ VI. spile, v.3
(spaɪl)
[f. spile n.3]
trans. To furnish, secure, or strengthen with timber or iron piles; = pile v.1 1.
| 1829 Brockett N.C. Gloss. (ed. 2), Spile, to make a foundation in soft or boggy ground by driving in spiles; i.e. piles or pieces of timber. 1869– in dial. glossaries, etc. |