spall

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɔːl/

Etymology 1

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

• spawl

Noun

spall (plural spalls)

1. 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.

Translations

splinter of stone

• Finnish: siru
• Polish: odłamek (pl) m

• Romanian: așchie (ro)
• Russian: обло́мок (ru) m (oblómok), оско́лок (ru) m (oskólok)

Verb

spall (third-person singular simple present spalls, present participle spalling, simple past and past participle spalled)

1. (transitive) To break into fragments or small pieces.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Pryce to this entry?)

2. (transitive) To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.

Translations

to break into fragments

• Finnish: pirstaloitua, sirpaloitua, mennä säpäleiksi

• Polish: rozpaść się

Etymology 2

From Italian spalla.

Noun

spall (plural spalls)

1. (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 [...].

Anagrams

• palls