spall
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English spalle (“a chip”) (first documented in 1440), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from the Middle English verb spald (“to split”) (c.1400), from Middle Low German spalden, cognate with Old High German spaltan (“to split”).
Alternative forms[edit]
Noun[edit]
spall (plural spalls)
- A splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
- 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, p. 13:
- My father knew Bert Le Feuvre, the foreman of Griffith's yard, and there was a little heap of spawls waiting ready every night in summer after school for me to crack.
- 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, p. 13:
Translations[edit]
splinter of stone
Verb[edit]
spall (third-person singular simple present spalls, present participle spalling, simple past and past participle spalled)
- (transitive, intransitive) To break into fragments or small pieces.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Pryce to this entry?)
- (transitive) To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to break into fragments
|
|
Etymology 2[edit]
Noun[edit]
spall (plural spalls)
- (obsolete, rare) The shoulder.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:
- Their mightie strokes their haberieons dismayld, / And naked made each others manly spalles [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle Low German
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms derived from Italian
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with rare senses