spring: a spring of pork, the lower part of the fore-quarter, divided from the neck. Fletcher, The Prophetess, i. 3. 7. In prov. use in Northants (EDD.). See Nares.
spring, the young growth in a wood, a copse, a grove; ‘The nightingale among the thick-leav’d spring’, Fletcher, Faithful Sheph. v. 1; Fairfax, Tasso, xiii. 35; ‘In yonder spring of roses’, Milton, P. L. ix. 218; a young shoot of a tree, Lucrece, 950; fig. a youth, lad, ‘Being yong and yet a very spring’, Mirrour for Mag., Northumberland, st. 4; Spenser, Muiopotmos, 292. ‘Spring’ is in prov. use for young growth, the undergrowth of wood; a copse, a grove (EDD.).
springal, a youth. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 6; Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, iii. 2 (Cassilane); springald, id., Knt. of B. Pestle, ii. 2; ‘Springald, adolescens’, Levins, Manip. See EDD. (s.v. Springald).
spruntly, smartly, sprucely. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Lady T.). The adj. is in prov. use (EDD.).
spurblind, ‘purblind’, nearly blind. Lyly, Sapho, ii. 2 (Phao). Halliwell says that the word was used by Latimer.
spurling, a smelt. Tusser, Husbandry, § 12, st. 5; Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 4 (Carion). ME. sperlynge, ‘sperlingus’ (Cath. Angl.); F. esperlan, a smelt (Cotgr.).
spur-ryal, spur-royal, a gold coin, worth about fifteen shillings; also called a royal or ryal. It had a star on the reverse resembling a rowel of a spur (Nares). Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 1 (Young Loveless); Mayne, City Match, ii. 3 (Aurelia).
spyon, spion, a scout, in an army; ‘Captain of the Spyons’, Heywood, Four Prentises (Guy), vol. ii, p. 242. F. ‘espion, a spy, scout; espier, to spy’ (Cotgr.).
spyrre, to ask, inquire. Morte Arthur, leaf 416, back, 36; bk. xxi, c. 8. Cp. ‘spur’ in use in the north country for publishing or asking the banns of matrimony in church, see EDD. (s.v. Spur, vb.2). ME. speren, to ask (Barbour’s Bruce, see Gloss.). OE. spyrian, to inquire into.
squall, a term of endearment; ‘The rich gull gallant calls her deare and love, Ducke, lambe, squall, sweet-heart, cony, and his dove’, Taylor, 1630 (Nares); Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 1 (Hellgill); Five Gallants, iv. 2. 3; used as a term of reproach, ‘Obereau, a young minx or little proud squal’, Cotgrave; also, applied to a man as a term of contempt, Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune (in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 199). See Halliwell.