Skrow. Shattered or battered.
Slab, A. A thick slice, lump, used like [squab], which see. Thus we hear of “a slab of bacon,” meaning a large piece. Opposed to “snoule,” which signifies a small bit.—“I have just had a snoule,” means I have only had a morsel.
Slink, A. “A slink of a thing,” in which phrase the word is only found, is alike applied to objects animate or inanimate, and means either a poor, weak, starved creature, or anything which is small and not of good quality.
Slut, A. A noise, sound. “A slut of thunder,” means a clap or peal of thunder. It is in this sense that the word is most generally used.
Snake-Fern. The hard-fern (Blechnum boreale). See “[Adder’s-Fern].”
Sniggle, To. To snarl. See chap. xvi., [p. 186]. Sniggle, A. An eel peculiar to the Avon. See chap. xii., pp. [125], [126].
Spell, A. A fit, or start. Pain is said to come and go by “spells,” that is, by shocks at recurring intervals.
Spene, A. In its first sense, like the Old-English spana, an udder of a cow. In its second, the rail of a gate or stile.
Spine-Oak. The heart of oak. This phrase points to the true derivation of “heart of oak.” The common theory Mr. Wedgwood has rightly classed under the head of “False Etymologies.” See Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855. No. 6, pp. 62, 63.
Spire-Bed, A. A place where the “spires,” that is, the reed-canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), grow; exactly equivalent to the Old-English hreod-bedd. On the outskirts of the New Forest at Redbridge, formerly Redford—Hreodford, literally, the ford of reeds—the Test is to this day full of the same “spires,” from which our forefathers gave the place its name. The river Caundle, in Dorsetshire, still, too, full of spire-beds, tells of a similar derivation, not from the Teutonic, but the Keltic. The phrase “spire-bed,” or “spear-bed field,” is very common, meaning a particular field, near where the “spires” grow, which are used by plasterers and thatchers in their work.