| spikelet | A unit of the inflorescence in grasses, sedges and some other monocotyledons, consisting of one to many flowers and associated glumes. (09 Oct 1997) |
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| spikenard | 1. <botany> An aromatic plant. In the United States it is the Aralia racemosa, often called spignet, and used as a medicine. The spikenard of the ancients is the Nardostachys Jatamansi, a native of the Himalayan region. From its blackish roots a perfume for the hair is still prepared in India. 2. A fragrant essential oil, as that from the Nardostachys Jatamansi. Origin: For spiked nard; cf. G. Spieknarde, NL. Spica nardi. See Spike an ear, and Nard. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spiketail | <zoology> The pintail duck. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spile | 1. A small plug or wooden pin, used to stop a vent, as in a cask. 2. A small tube or spout inserted in a tree for conducting sap, as from a sugar maple. 3. A large stake driven into the ground as a support for some superstructure; a pile. Spile hole, a small air hole in a cask; a vent. Origin: Cf. LG. Spile, dial. G. Speil, speiler, D. Spijl. 170. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spilikin | One of a number of small pieces or pegs of wood, ivory, bone, or other material, for playing a game, or for counting the score in a game, as in cribbage. In the plural (spilikins), a game played with such pieces; pushpin. Alternative forms: spillikin, spilliken. Origin: OD. Spelleken a small pin. See Spill a splinter. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spill | 1. To destroy; to kill; to put an end to. "And gave him to the queen, all at her will To choose whether she would him save or spill." (Chaucer) "Greater glory think [it] to save than spill." (Spenser) 2. To mar; to injure; to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. "They [the colours] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship." (Puttenham) "Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations." (Fuller) 3. To suffer to fall or run out of a vessel; to lose, or suffer to be scattered; applied to fluids and to substances whose particles are small and loose; as, to spill water from a pail; to spill quicksilver from a vessel; to spill powder from a paper; to spill sand or flour. Spill differs from pour in expressing accidental loss, a loss or waste contrary to purpose. 4. To cause to flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed, or suffer to be shed, as in battle or in manslaughter; as, a man spills another's blood, or his own blood. "And to revenge his blood so justly spilt." (Dryden) 5. To relieve a sail from the pressure of the wind, so that it can be more easily reefed or furled, or to lessen the strain. Spilling line, a rope used for spilling, or dislodging, the wind from the belly of a sail. Spill, n. An instance of spilling. Oil spill, an accidental release of oil, usually into the ocean, due to damage to an oil tanker or uncontrolled release from an underwater well. Origin: OE. Spillen,sually, to destroy, AS. Spillan, spildan, to destroy; akin to Icel. Spilla to destroy, Sw. Spilla to spill, Dan. Spilde,G. & D. Spillen to squander, OHG. Spildan. To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay. Origin: Spilt; Spilling. 1. A bit of wood split off; a splinter. 2. A slender piece of anything. Specifically: A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask; a spile. A metallic rod or pin. A small roll of paper, or slip of wood, used as a lamplighter, etc. <chemical> One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground. 3. A little sum of money. Origin: Cf. Spell a splinter. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spiller | 1. One who, or that which, spills. 2. A kind of fishing line with many hooks; a boulter. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spillet fishing | A system or method of fishing by means of a number of hooks set on snoods all on one line; in North America, called trawl fishing, bultow, or bultow fishing, and long-line fishing. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spilliard fishing | A system or method of fishing by means of a number of hooks set on snoods all on one line; in North America, called trawl fishing, bultow, or bultow fishing, and long-line fishing. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spillway | A sluiceway or passage for superfluous water in a reservoir, to prevent too great pressure on the dam. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spiloma | Synonym: nevus. Origin: G. Spilos, spot, + -oma, tumour (05 Mar 2000) |
| spiloplaxia | A red spot observed in leprosy or pellagra. Origin: G. Spilos, spot, + plax, a plaque, plate (05 Mar 2000) |
| spilt | A crack, or longitudinl fissure. 2. A breach or separation, as in a political party; a division. 3. A piece that is split off, or made thin, by splitting; a splinter; a fragment. 4. Specif, one of the sections of a skin made by dividing it into two or more thicknesses. 5. <veterinary> A division of a stake happening when two cards of the kind on which the stake is laid are dealt in the same turn. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| spilus | Synonym: nevus spilus. Origin: Mod. L. Fr. G. Spilos, a spot (05 Mar 2000) |
| spin | 1. To practice spinning; to work at drawing and twisting threads; to make yarn or thread from fibre; as, the woman knows how to spin; a machine or jenny spins with great exactness. "They neither know to spin, nor care to toll." (Prior) 2. To move round rapidly; to whirl; to revolve, as a top or a spindle, about its axis. "Round about him spun the landscape, Sky and forest reeled together." (Longfellow) "With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head." (G. W. Cable) 3. To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet; as, blood spinsfrom a vein. 4. To move swifty; as, to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc. 1. To draw out, and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton, or flax; to spin goat's hair; to produce by drawing out and twisting a fibrous material. "All the yarn she [Penelope] spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths." (Shak) 2. To draw out tediously; to form by a slow process, or by degrees; to extend to a great length; with out; as, to spin out large volumes on a subject. "Do you mean that story is tediously spun out?" (Sheridan) 3. To protract; to spend by delays; as, to spin out the day in idleness. "By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives." (L'Estrange) 4. To cause to turn round rapidly; to whirl; to twirl; as, to spin a top. 5. To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, or the like) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc. 6. <mechanics> To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe. To spin a yarn, to twist it into ropes for convenient carriage on an expedition. To spin street yarn, to gad about gossiping. Origin: AS. Spinnan; akin to D. & G. Spinnen, Icel. & Sw. Spinna, Dan. Spinde, Goth. Spinnan, and probably to E. Span. Cf. Span, Spider. 1. The act of spinning; as, the spin of a top; a spin a bicycle. 2. <physics> Velocity of rotation about some specified axis. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |