SPONTOON.

Sp. Espontone.

Fr. Esponton; It. Spontòne;

A sharp pointed (ponto or punto) instrument.
A large bodkin was called-pontone.

They have no defensive armour; but, besides their weapons, the chiefs carried a staff of distinction, in the same manner as our officers do the spontoon.

Cook. First Voyage, b. ii. c. 10. About thirty or forty men, each armed with a spontoon, a bow, and arrows, stood drawn up on a rising ground close by the village.-Id. Third Voyage, b. iv. c. 9.

Therfore behoveth him a ful long spone,
That shal ete with a fend.

Chaucer. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,846.

Being shot past the cape, we presently tooke in our sayles, which onely God had preserued vnto vs; and when we were shot in betweene the high lands, the wind blowing trade, without any inch of sayle, we spooned before the sea.

Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. iii. p. 349.

[I would wene] yt one sponeful of good workes should no more kill ye soule, the a potager of good wurts shuld kil & destroi ye bodi.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 617.

Ser. Faith sir, here are no oats to be got, unless you'l have 'em in porredge: the people are so mainly given to spoon-meat.

Beaum. & Fletch. The Scornful Lady, Act ii. sc. 1.
Her toothlesse chappes disgrac't her tongue
In telling of a tale,

And sucke she might a teat for teeth,
And spoonage too did faile.

Warner. Albion's England, b. ii. c. 10. One peculiar propertie hath the wild olive, that a spooneful of the decoction of their leaves with honey, is given with successe to them that spit and reach up bloud. Holland. Plinie, b. xxiii. c. 4.

Because our pease were all eaten, and our flour almost spent, we cut our beef in small bits after 'twas boil'd, and boiled it again in water, thicken'd with a little flour, and so eat it altogether with spoons.-Dampier. Voyages, an. 1675.

Captain Swan, though with much reluctance, gave way to a small enlargement of our commons, for now we had not aboue 10 spoonfuls of buil'd maiz a man, once a day. Id. Ib. an. 1686.

SPORADICAL. Gr. Σποράδικος, from σπειρEv, spargere, dispergere, to spread, to disperse. For the application to disease, see the quotations.

These I call intercurrent or sporadick, because they happen at any time, when epidemicks rage. Sydenham. Works, c. 1. p. 3. A sporadical disease is-what in a particular season affects but few people.-Arbuthnot.

SPORT, n.
SPORT, v.

SPO'RTFUL.
SPO'RTFULLY.
SPO'RTFULNESS.
SPO'RTINGLY.
SPORTIVE.

Hickes, (Dict. Islandicum, p. 88,) Isl. Spott, ludibrium; A. Sport, ludibrium; Dut. Spot; Ger. Spott, ludus, lusus; Fr. Déport, disport, sport, pastime, recreation, pleasure, (Cotgrave;) It. SPORTIVELY. Disporto. Skinner suggests SPORTIVENESS. -jucunde se portare; i.e. SPO'RTLESS. gerere, "to bear himself pleaSPO'RTLING, n. santly;" or-se a laboribus SPORTSMAN. deportare, (i. e.) subducere, labores intermittere, interquiescere, to forbear, to withdraw from, to intermit labour or toilsome occupations; - becoming, according to this latter suggestion, nearly equivalent to the verb To Divert; to turn away, to withdraw from severe study, from painful or unpleasing subjects; and then

To amuse, to cheer, to please, (sc.) with play, frolic, to joke or jest; to be playfully gay, joyous or playful games or occupations; to play, to or mirthful.

Of slouth, there is no man ashamed but we take it as for a laughynge matter and a sporte. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 102. And [this] unfathered lady [Iole] could sportfully put on the lion's skin upon her own fair shoulders, and play with the club with her own delicate hands. Sidney. Arcadia, b. iii. He got out of the river and shaking off the water (as great men do their friends) now he had no farther cause to use it, inweeded himself so, as the ladies lost the farther marking his sportfulness.-Id. Ib. b. ii.

And upon garlands we are set,
With wreaths and posies sporting.

Drayton. Muses' Elysium, Nymph. 6.
Bids thee leaue these, and with her soueraigne grace,
Here on this grasse-plot, in this very place
To come and sport.

Shakespeare. The Tempest, Act iv. sc. 1. Sporting the lion ramp'd, and in his paw Dandl'd the kid.

Millon. Paradise Lost, b. iv.

And, them before, the fry of children yong
Their wanton sportes and childish mirth did play,
And to the maydens sounding tymbrels song
In well attuned notes a ioyous lay.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 12.
Who says these Romish pageants been to high!
To be the scorne of sportful poesy?
Bp. Hall. Satires, b. iv. Sat. 7.
When sadnesse dejects me, either I countermine it with
another sadnesse, or I kindle squibbs about me again, and
flie into sportfulnesse and company.
Donne. Letter to Sir H. G. p. 288.

For the question you there put, you do it I suppose but sportingly.-Hammond. Works, vol. i. p. 193.

Sad language fits sad lookes; stuff'd menacings,
The angry brow; the sportive, wanton things;
And the severe, speech ever serious.

B. Jonson. Horace. Art of Poetrie.
One of thy tressed curls there falling down,
As loth to be imprison'd in thy crown,

I saw the soft air sportively to take it,
And into strange and sundry forms to make it.
Drayton. The Duke of Suffolk to the French Queen.
Shall I conclude her to be simple, that has her time to
Wallon. Angler.

begin, or refuse sportiveness as freely as I have?

Out of her window close she blushing peeps;
Her weeping eyes in pearled dew she steeps;
Casting what sportless nights she ever led.

P. Fletcher. Piscatory Eglogues, Egl. 7.

And, while the robes imbibe the solar ray, O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play (Their shining veils unbound.) Along the skies Tost, and retost, the ball incessant flies. They sport, they feast; Nausicaa lifts her voice, And, warbling sweet, makes earth and heaven rejoice. Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. vi. In areas vary'd with mosaic art, Some whirl the disk, and some the javelin dart, Aside, sequester'd from the vast resort, Antinous sate spectator of the sport.-Id. Ib. b. iv. When sportful coots run skipping o'er the strand. Dryden. Virgil. Georgics, b. i. Now there is nothing more surprizing in its own nature than to see or hear a serious thing sportfully represented, and dress'd up in an antick and ridiculous disguise. Scott. Christian Life, pt. ii. c. 3.

If a history so circumstantiated as that is, shall be resolved into fable or parable, no history whatever can stand sportive wit, or wanton fancy. secure, but a wide door will be opened to the rovings of

Waterland. Works, vol. vi. p. 16.

Where the linnets sit and sing, Little sportlings of the spring.

Swift. On a Lady's Spaniel.

Ye days, that balmy influence shed,
When sweet childhood, ever sprightly,
In paths of pleasure sported lightly,
Whither, ah whither are ye fled!-Beattie. Ode to Hope.

We had a pleasant day, and the evening brought us all on board; myself and party met with good sport. Cook. Second Voyage, b. i. c. 4.

So sportive is the light
Shot through the boughs, it dances as they dance,
Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick,
And dark'ning and enlight'ning, as the leaves
Play wanton, ev'ry moment, ev'ry spot.

Cowper: Task, b. i.
When again the lambkins play,
Pretty sportlings full of May.-Philips. To Miss Carteret.

Gray dawn appears; the sportsman and his train Speckle the bosom of the distant plain. Cowper. Progress of Errour. SPORTULE.Sp. Esportula; Lat. Sportula, Fr. Sportule; It. Sportula;

sporta; Gr. Zupis, a basket; applied to the dole or alms carried away in the basket. GenerallySportule,-alms; sportulary, eleemosynary. The bishops, who consecrated the ground, had a spill or sportule from the credulous laity.-Ayliffe. Parergon.

Hereupon it is, that these sportulary preachers are fain to sooth up their many masters, and are so gaged with the fear of a starving displeasure, that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors; as being charmed to speak either placentia or nothing. Bp. Hall. Cases of Conscience, Dis. 3. c.7.

SPOT, n.
SPOT, V.
SPO'TLESS.

SPOTLESSNESS.

SPOTTY.

Dut. Spotte. Junius says,— perhaps from to spatter, conspurcare, to be foul, (see SPATTER.) Tooke affirms

spot to be the past part. of spit; A. S. Spittan, to throw out; spot-the matter spitten, spate or spitted. And see SroUT, and SPECK.

A speck, a blot, a stain; (met.)—a mark of impurity; surface marked or denoted; a specific place.

Her gite was gray and ful of spotles blake.

Chaucer. The Test. of Creseide. Syth that al the iustice of man is as the scripture sayeth like a fowle spotted clowte, and that ye sterres are not clene in the syght of God.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 740.

This your sedition is not onely most odious, but also most horrible, that hath spotted the whole countrie with such a staine of ydlenesse.-Sir John Cheeke. Hurt of Sedition.

A hill most fit for such a master,

A spotless mind of alabaster.-Sidney. Arcadia, b.ii.
Wyld beastes in yron yokes he would compell;
The spotted panther, and the tusked bore,
The pardale swift.-Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 6.
Through cruell knife that her deare heart did kerve
And now she is with her upon the way
Marching in lovely wise, that could deserve
No spot of blame, though spite did oft assay
To blot her with dishonor of so faire a prey.

Id. Ib. b. iv. c. 1.

Sweete Love devoyd of villanie or ill, But pure and spotles, as at first he sprong Out of th' Almighties bosome, where he nests. Id. The Teares of the Muses. Lord, if thou look for a spotlessness, whom wilt thou look upon!-Donne. Devotions.

The broad circumference

Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At ev'ning from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. i.
Thus he that has an idea made up of barely the simple
ones of a beast with spots, has but a confused idea of a leo-
pard; it not being thereby sufficiently distinguished from a
lynx, and several other sorts of beasts that are spotted.
Locke. Of Hum. Underst. b. ii. c. 29.
This brilliant is so spotless, and so bright,
He needs no foil, but shines by his own proper light.
Dryden. The Character of a Good Parson.
Yet cherish'd there, beneath the shining waste,
The furry nations harbour: tipt with jet,
Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press.

Thomson. Winter. Two water snakes swam by the ship: they were beautifully spotted, and in every respect like land snakes, except that their tails were broad and flat.

Cook. First Voyage, b. iii. c. 2. Few men are so spotless in their characters as not to afford some scope for evil report among those who examine their actions and characters with the searching and unwinking eye of envy.-Knox, Ser. 17.

One joined to another under certain pledges or sureties man and woman to each other, joined or united in marriage or wedlock; married, wedded. Spouse-breach,-(a compound of a foreign with a native word) has given place to adultery. And see Wed-lock.

And this mayde y spoused was of so riche blode.
R. Gloucester, p. 13.
Endlene hondred ger and fifti and tuo,
After that God on erthe com, this spousinge was ido.
Id. p. 466.
He the emperoure's dogter in spoushed thus nome.
Id. p. 66.
And y crouned hym sulue kyng thoru the quene rede,
And huld hyre in sponsbruche in vyl flesse's dede.
Id. p. 220.
A fol womman in spousbreche he huld vnder ys wyf.
Id.
p.

279.

To the erle of Boloyn.-Id. p. 210.

Whan thei were trouth plight, & purueied the sposage, Helianore forth hir dight to Rouhan hir menage.

Id. p. 153.

And Abraam nat hardy. ones to letten hym Ne for brightnesse of here beaute. here spouse to be by knowe. Piers Plouhman, p. 215. The architriclyn clepith the spouse, and seith to him, ech man settith first good wyn; and whanne men ben filled, than that that is worse; but thou hast kept the good wyn into this tyme.-Wiclif. Jon, c. 2.

And Jhesus seide to hem whether the sones of spousaylis moun faste as long as the spouse is with hem? as longe tyme as thei han the spouse with hem thei moun not faste. Id. Mark, c. 2. Come thou and I schal schewe to thee the spousesse the wyf of the Lombe.-Id. Apocalips, c. 21.

"Sire clerk of Oxenforde," our hoste said, "Ye ride as stille and coy, as doth a maid, Were newe spoused, sitting at the bord.

Chaucer. The Clerkes Prologue, v. 7877.

This markis hath hire spoused with a ring
Brought for the same cause, and than hire sette
Upon an hors-snow-white, and wel ambling.

Id. The Clerkes Tale, v. 8262.

O swete and wel beloved spouse dere
Ther is a conseil, and ye wol it here,
Which that right fayn I wold unto you saie,
So that ye swere, ye wol it not bewraie.

Id. The Second Nonnes Tale, v. 15,612.

Boweth your nekke under the blisful yok
Of soveraintee, and not of servise,
Which that men clepen spousaile or wedlok.

This wife was fro the well come,
Where that a pot with water nome
She hath, and brought it in to house,
And sawe howe that hir sole spouse
Was set, and loked on a boke
Nigh to the fyre.

Id. Ib. v. 17,989.

Gower. Con. A. b. iii.

At whiche mariage was no persones present but the spouse, the spousesse, the duches of Bedforde her moder, ye preest, two gentylwomen, and a yong man to helpe the preest synge. Fabyan. Chronycle, an. 1664.

Not the spousage of their soules haue they broken by no filthy traditions of men.-Bale. Image, c. 14.

What joy or honours can compare

With holy nuptials?

When in the happie choyce,

The spouse and spoused have the formost voyce!

B. Jonson. Epithalamion.
At last such grace I found, and meanes I wrought,
That I that lady to my spouse had wonne;
Accord of friendes, consent of parents sought.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 4.

He left two sonnes, of which faire Elferon,
The eldest brother, did untimely dy;
Whose emptie place the mightie Oberon
Doubly supplide, in spousall and dominion.-Id. Ib. c. 10.
Where Phoebus self, that god of poets hight,
They say, did sing the spousall hymne full cleere,
That all the gods were ravisht with delight

Of his celestiall song and musicks wondrous might.

water falling, not in drops, but in a continuous stream, like liquor from the spout of a vessel.

To spout, (met.)—to throw out, utter or pour forth, (sc.) words.

Spouter, an utterer of words, an abundant or copious talker.

Who kepte Jonas in the fishes mawe,
Til he was spouted up at Ninivee?

Chaucer. The Man of Lawes Tale, v. 5007.

This signe is veraily resembled
Liche to a man, whiche halte assembled
In either honde a water spout,
Wherof the stremes rennen out.-Gower. Con. A. b. vii.

They themselves laid them down hard by the murmuring musick of certain waters, which spouted out of the side of the hills, and in the bottom of the valley made of many springs a pretty brook, like a common-wealth of many families.-Sidney. Arcadia, b. i.

And one of them I saw my selfe sunke downe right with the abundance of water that this monstrous fish spouted and filled it withall.-Holland. Plinie, b. ix. c. 6.

From his throte brake out My wine, with mans flesh gobbets, like a spout. Chapman. Homer. Odyssey, b. ix. No hands could force it thence, so fixt it stood, Till out it rush'd, expell'd by streams of spouting blood. Dryden. Ovid. Melam. b. xii. They are likewise very full of blood, for if they are deeply. wounded in a dozen places, there will instantly gush out as many fountains of blood, spouting to a considerable distance. Anson. Voyages, b. ii. c. 1. So the good man doth not plant his bounty in one small hole, or spout it on one narrow spot, but with an open hand disseminates it, with an impartial regard distils it all about. Barrow, vol. i. Ser. 31. Neither is it desirable, that a boy should acquire that love and habit of declaiming, which may introduce him to spouting clubs or disputing societies. Knox. Liberal Education, § 20. The diameter of the base of this spout I judged to be about fifty or sixty feet; that is, the sea within this space was much agitated, and foamed up to a great height. Cook, Second Voyage, b. i. c. 6. The quoters imitate parrots or professed spouters, in committing words only to memory, purposely for the sake of ostentation. Knox. Winter Evenings, Even. 32.

I haue seene it, saith Cambrensis, experimented, that a toad being incompassed with a thong of Irish leather, and creeping thitherward, indeuoring to haue skipt ouer it, suddenlie, reculed backe, as though it had beene rapt in the head: wherevpon he began to sprall to the other side. Holinshed. Description of Ireland, c. 2.

As if you put the haire of an horsse taile in mire, puddle, or in a doonghill for a certeine space, it will turne to a little thin spralling worme, which I haue often seene and experimented.-Id. Ib.

And often with his sprawlings, came aloft;
Yet no way kept down death's relentlesse force:
But (full of water) made an heauie corse.

Chapman. Homer. Batpazomyomazia.
The tumbling goblet the wide floor o'erflows,
A stream of gore burst spouting from his nose;
Grim in convulsive agonies he sprawls;
Before him spurn'd the loaded table falls.

Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. xxii.

That spray to fame so fertile,
The lover-crowning myrtle,

In wreaths of mixed bows,
Within whose shades are dwelling
Those beauties most excelling,
Enthron'd upon her brows.

Drayton. Ode to the New Year. Cloris. Nay that those sweet harmonious strains we hear,

Amongst the lively birds' melodious lays,
As they recording sit upon the sprays,
Were hovering still for music at thine ears.

Id. The Muses' Elysium, Nymphal 4.
The painted birds, companions of the spring,
Hopping from spray to spray, were heard to sing.

Dryden. The Flower and the Leaf.

could not see a mile round us, occasioned by the spray of It being so very hazy and thick in the horizon, that we the sea being lifted up to a greater height by the force of the wind.-Cook. Second Voyage, b. ii. c. 4.

SPREAD, v. SPREAD, n. SPREADER. SPREA'DING, n. SPREA'DINGLY.

Dut. Speaden, spreyden; Ger. Spreiten; Sw. Sprida; A. S. Spredan, extendere, expanderc.

To extend or stretch out, to expand or lay open; to broaden or widen; to lay over, stretch over, a wider or broader space; to pass or move over, a wide or extended surface; i to dilate, to diffuse; to divulge, to publish.

The sea rose with such high spring tides, that ouerflowing the countries next adjoining, diuers villages with the inhabitants were drowned and destroied.

Holinshed. Historie of England, b. vii, c. 8.

As through his chanell crookt Meander glides
With turnes and twines, and roules now to now fro,
Whose streames run forth there to the salt sea sides,
Here backe returne, and to their springward goe.

Fairefax. Godfrey of Boulogne, b. xvi.
'Twas ebbing darkness, past the noon of night,
And Phospher, on the confines of the light,
Promis'd the sun, ere day began to spring.

Dryden. Palamon & Arcite, b. iii.

Along these blushing borders, bright with dew,
And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers,
Fair-handed spring unbosoms every grace;
Throws out the snow-drop, and the crocus first;
The daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue,

And polyanthus of unnumber'd dyes.-Thomson. Spring.

Isa. Alas, poor woodcock, dost thou go a birding! thou kast e'en set a sprindge to catch thy own neck.

Dryden, The Wild Gallant, Act iii. The exterior part of this our habitable world is the air or atmosphere; a light, thin fluid, or springy body, that encompasses the solid earth on all sides.

Locke. Elements of Natural Philosophy, c. 5.

This undestroyed springiness of the air seems to make the necessity of fresh air to the life of hot animals, (few of which, as far as I can guess after many trials, would be able to live two minutes of an hour, if they were totally and all at once deprived of air) suggest, &c. Boyle. Works, vol. iv. p. 91.

Yet the ends and uses of respiration are not served by that springiness, but by some other unknown and singular quality.-Bentley, Ser. 8.

Indeed love (the spring-head of charity) as it is the sweetest of all passions, so it is one of the strongest too. Atterbury, vol. i. Ser. 2.

These assiduously,

But gently, in their proper arts employ'd,
Acquire a vigour and springy activity,
To which they were not born.

Armstrong. Art of Preserving Health, b. iii.

This was very conspicuous during the spring-tide of the full moon, which happened soon after our arrival.

SPRINKLE, v. SPRINKLE, n.

SPRINKLING, N.

}

Cook. Third Voyage, b. iv. c. 3.

Dut. Sprenghen, sprenghelen, sprenkalen; Ger. Sprengen, sprenken; Sw. Sprenga; A. S. Sprang-an, besprængan, spargere, sprænc-an, minutatim spargere ;-merely a consequential usage of Sprang-an, to spring, to throw or shoot forth; to throw or cast upon, to spurt forth upon.

To throw forth in small particles, in drops; to cover with small particles or drops; to scatter, to asperse.

"Wad segge ge," quoth Merlyn, "of this newe thinge? "Radde ge, that me by sprengede that morter mid my blod."-R. Gloucester, p. 130.

They burn sweet gums and spices or perfumes, and pleasant smells, and sprinkle about sweet ointments and waters. More. Utopia, b. ii. c. 5.

There Hecuba I saw with a hundred moe
Of her sons wyues, and Priam at the altar,
Sprinkling with blood his flame of sacrifice.

The seate of Muses nine

Surrey. Virgile. Eneis, b. ii.

where fiftene welles doe flowe, Whose sprinckling springs and golden streames ere this thou well didst knowe. Turbervile. Upon the Death of Mayster Richarde Edwardes. She [Hope] alway smyld, and in her hand did hold An holy water sprinckle, dipt in deow, With which she sprinckled favours manifold On whom she list, and did great liking sheowe, Great liking unto many, but true love to feowe.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 12.

How long might an indifferent eye looke upon the comicall and mimick actions in those your misteries that should be sacred, (your magicall exorcismes, your clericall-shavings; your uncleanly unctions, your crossings, creepings, censings, sprinklings, &c.-Bp. Hall, Decad. 1. Ep. 1.

Him his swift coursers, on his splendid car, Rapt from the lessening thunder of the war; To Troy they drove him, groaning from the shore, And sprinkling, as he pass'd, the sands with gore. Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. xiii. As signs of friendship they present a green branch, and sprinkle water with the hand over the head. Cook. Second Voyage, b. iii. c. 3. [A stranger] had come upon the recommendation of Socrates the son of Sophroniscus with an earnest and humble desire to receive some sprinklings of his wisdom. Search. Light of Nature, vol. ii. pt. il. c. 23.

SPRIT, i. e. Spirt, to sprout, to throw out.

Toads are sometimes observed to exclude and spirt out a dark and liquid matter behinde; which we have observed to be true, and a venemous condition there may be perhaps therein.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 13,

The barley, after it has been couched four days, will sweat a little, and shew the chit or sprit at the root-end of the corn. Mortimer. Husbandry.

Soon after the wind moderated, and we let all the reefs out of the top-sails, got the sprit-sail-yard out, and topgallant-mast up.-Cook. Second Voyage, b. i. c. 2.

Sprited, haunted as by a spritc, (Steevens.)
Wherwith came to my inind

The image eke of my dere father, when
I thus beheld the king of equal age
Yeld up the sprite with wounds so cruelly.

Surrey. Virgile. Eneis, b. il.

Her sister Anne, spritelesse for dread to heare This fearefull sturre, with nailes gan teare her face, She smote her brest, and rushed through the rout.

Id. Ib. b. iv. Yet died not his [Arundell's] prodigiouse tyrannye with him, but succeeded with his office in Henry Chichely, and in a great sort more of the spryghtful spiritualtie.

State Trials. Hen. V. an. 1. Sir J. Oldcastle.

And forth be cald out of deepe darknes dredd
Legions of sprights, the which, like litle flyes,
Fluttring about his ever-damned hedd,
Awaite whereto their service he applyes,
To aide his friendes, or fray his enimies.

Spenser. Faerie Queenę, b. i. c. 1.
Satyr. See he gathers up his spright
And begins to hunt for life.
Beaum. & Fletch. The Faithful Shepherdess, Act iv. sc. 1.
Imo. I am sprighted with a foole,
Frighted, and angred worse.

Shakespeare. Cymbeline, Act ii. 80. 3.

Ar. Pardon, Master,

I will be correspondent to command
And doe my spryting, gently.

Id. The Tempest, Act i. sc. 2. Fair Colona, young and sprightful lady, do not let me, in the best of my youth, languish in my most earnest affections.-Ford. Love's Sacrifice, Act i. sc. 2.

This said, his readie charioteere, did scourge his spritefull horse,

lance

That freely to the sable fleet, perform'd their fierie course. Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. xi. Then on the shore, the Worthy hid, and left his horrid Amids the Tamariskes, the spritelike, did with his sword advance Vp to the river. Id. Ib. b. xxi. If his [Jonson] later be not so spriteful and vigorous as his first pieces, all that are old will, and all that desire to be old should excuse him therein.-Fuller. Worthies. Westminster. No organs, no harp, no lute can sound out the praises of the Almighty Father so spritefully, as the man that rises from his bed of sorrows, and considers what an excellent difference he feels from the groans and intolerable accents of yesterday.-Bp. Taylor, vol. i. Ser. 15.

Levity and rashness have in it some spritefulness, and greatness of action.-Id. Ser. 9.

For after death, we sprights have just such natures,
We had for all the world, when human creatures.

Dryden. Epilogue to Tyrannick Love.

In short therefore, the proper heaven and happiness of a man, considered as a rational being, consists in the constant, free, and sprightful exercise of his faculties, about such objects as are most convenient to his rational nature. Scott. Christian Life, pt. i. c. 1. Wak'd as her custom was, before the day, To do th' observance due to sprightly May: For sprightly May commands our youth to keep The vigils of her night, and breaks their sluggard sleep. Dryden. Palamon & Arcite, b. i.

Meantime the lyre rejoins the sprightly lay;
Love-dittied airs, and dance, conclude the day.
Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. i.

Then the faculties are most pleas'd and delighted too, when they are most vigorously exercised about that which is most suitable to them; when they are not only determined to such objects as are most agreeable to their natures, but do also act upon and exert themselves towards them with the greatest sprightliness and vigour. Scott. Christian Life, pt. i. c. 1.

A leaf he'd scarce perus'd, when to their sight,
In likeness of a page, appear'd a spright.

Hoole. Orlando Furioso, b. ii.

So when Saul's weary'd son his fasting broke
With honey dropping from Philistian oak,
Returning strength and sprightliness arise,
Glow on his cheeks, and sparkle in his eyes.

Harte. Thomas A Kempis: a Vision.

Parents and school-masters may not be displeased at unlucky tricks played by their lads, as showing a sagacity and sprightliness they delight to behold; yet they will not suffer them to pass with impunity, least it should generate idleness and other mischiefs.

Search. Light of Nature, vol. ii. pt. ii. c. 26.

SPROUT, n. Dut. Spruyte, spruyten; Ger.

SPROUT, v. } Spross, Sprute, S. Sprout, spraut, past part. of Spryt-an,

To shoot out, to cast forth.

Sprouts, in gardening, are the shoots from the stem of the vegetable after the head is cut off; then applied to

Young plants before they have headed.

The bough, the braunch, the tree, From which do spring and sproute such fleshlie seedes, As nothing else but moane and myschiefe breedes. Gascoigne. The Fruites of Warre.

These sprouts when they are come once to some bignesse, and do braunch there, bee called of the Latines by a prettie name, gemma, as it were precious stones; but so long, as they are no other than buds sprouting foorth under the concavitie or pit-hole of the foresaid joints, they tearmo them Oculos, (i. oilets, or eies :) marie in the very top they be named by them germina, (i. sprigs or burgeons.) Holland. Plinic, b. xvii. c. 21.

But a whole Hydra more Remains of sprouting heads too long to score. Dryden. Absalom & Achitophel.

Upon our complaining of the want of bread-fruit, we were told, that the produce of the last season was nearly exhausted; and that what was seen sprouting upon the trees, would not be fit to use in less than three months. Cook. First Voyage, b. i. c. 15.

Thus the heartiest gratitude, as I have shown in the proper place concerning the purest love, though bearing the fragrantest flowers, sprouts originally from the earthy principle of self interest. Search. Light of Nature, vol. i. pt. ii. c. 23.

SPRUCE, adj. SPRUCE, v. SPRUCELY. SPRUCENESS.

Skinner derives from the Fr. Preux, and preux from the Lat. Probus, or probatus. Junius says, the well-fed and strong are called-spruze and lustie young fellows, from the A. S. verb Spryttan, to grow, to spread. Minshew, from the Lat. Purus.

Perhaps the quotation from Hall will shew the true origin of the word. It was the custom of our ancestors, on especial occasions, to dress after The gentlethe manner of particular countries. men, who adopted that of Prussia or Spruce, seem, from the description of it, to have been arrayed in a style, to which the epithet spruce, according to our modern usage, might have been applied with perfect propriety. Prussian leather, (corium Pruscianum,) is called, in Barett, by the familiar name of spruce.

And after them came syr Edward Hayward, than Admyral, and wyth hym syr Thomas Parre, in doblettes of crimosin veluet, voyded lowe on the backe, and before to the cannell bone, lased on the breastes with chaynes of siluer, and ouer that shorte clokes of crimosyn satyne, and on their heades hattes after dauncers fashion, with feasauntes fethers in theim: They were appereyled after the fashion of Prussia or Spruce.-Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 1.

Earth too, will be a Lemnia; and the tree,
That wraps that crystal in a wooden tomb,
Shall be took up spruce, fill'd with diamond.

Donne. Elegy on Death.

Alas! the niceties of a spruce understanding, and the curious nothings of useless speculation, and ail the opinions of men that make the divisions of heart, and do nothing else, cannot bring us one drop of comfort in the day of tribulation, and therefore are no parts of the strength of faith. Bp. Taylor, vol. iii. Ser. 8,