spall

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɔːl/

Etymology 1

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English spalle (“a chip”) (first documented in 1440), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from the Middle English verb spald (“to split”) (c.1400), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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, intransitive) 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.

Related terms

• spaller
• spalling

Translations

to break into fragments

• Finnish: pirstaloitua, sirpaloitua, mennä säpäleiksi
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: rozpaść się

Etymology 2

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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