sparkle, to scatter, disperse. Beaumont and Fl., Loyal Subject, i. 5. 4; Humorous Lieutenant, i. 1 (Demetrius); sparkling, scattering, Bonduca, iii. 2 (near the end). See Nares, and Trench’s Select Glossary (ed. 1890). In prov. use in Yorks. (EDD.). See [disparkle].
sparse, to scatter. Fairfax, Tasso, xii. 46; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 268. L. spars-us, pp. of spargere, to scatter. See [sperse].
spaw, a spa, place with mineral waters; ‘Your Tunbridge, or the Spaw itself’, B. Jonson, News from the New World (1 Herald); The Spawe, Gascoigne, Works, i. 376 (1572). So named from Spa, in Belgium.
spay, to render female animals barren; ‘Geld your loose wits, and let your Muse be spay’d’, Cleveland (Johnson’s Dict.). Anglo-F. *espayer (OF. espeër) < Med. L. spadare, to deprive of generative power (Ducange). See [spade].
speed, to dispatch, destroy, kill; ‘With a speeding thrust his heart he found’, Dryden (Johnson); sped, pp. done for, Romeo, iii. 1. 94; Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 72; speeding-place, the place where a wound is fatal, and the man is sped. Marston, What you Will, i. 1 (Quadratus); Chapman, Widow’s Tears, i (Tharsalio).
spence, expense; ‘Spence, cost, despence’, Palsgrave; Ascham, Toxophilus, 122. ME. spense, spendynge, ‘dispensa’, Voc. 578. 45; spence, or expence (Prompt. EETS. 427).
spence, a buttery, a larder; ‘Spens, a buttrye, despencier’, Palgrave; spence, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 35 (Taverner). In prov. use in Scotland and the north country, meaning a larder, pantry, store-cupboard, see EDD. (s.v. Spense). ME. spence, botery, ‘promptuarium’ (Prompt. EETS. 427).
sperage, ‘the herb asparagus; it is so called by Gerard, and all the old botanists, as its English name’ (Nares). North, tr. Plutarch, Jul. Caesar, § 16 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 58); Sylv. Du Bartas, Furies (Nares); Haven of Health, c. xxiii, p. 45 (id.). A Glouc. form (EDD.). ME. sperage, asparagus (Palladius, Husbandry, 112).
spere, used in the sense of a youth, a stripling; ‘A lusty spere’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 947; Poems ag. Garnesche, iii. 41. Prob. a fig. use of ‘spere’, a young shoot or sprout, still in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Spear, sb.1 7).
spere, speer, to shoot, sprout, a term in malting, Tusser, Husbandry, § 84. 5. See [spire].