Spathaceous adjective (Botany) Having a spathe; resembling a spathe; spathal.

Spathal adjective (Botany) Furnished with a spathe; as, spathal flowers. Howitt.

Spathe noun [ Latin spatha , Greek ...: confer French spathe . See Spade for digging.] (Botany) A special involucre formed of one leaf and inclosing a spadix, as in aroid plants and palms. See the Note under Bract , and Illust. of Spadix .

» The name is also given to the several-leaved involucre of the iris and other similar plants.

Spathed adjective (Botany) Having a spathe or calyx like a sheath.

Spathic adjective [ Confer French spathique , from F. & German spath spar.] Like spar; foliated or lamellar; spathose.

Spathic iron (Min.) , siderite. See Siderite (a) .

Spathiform adjective [ French spathiforme .] Resembling spar in form. "The ocherous, spathiform , and mineralized forms of uranite." Lavoisier (Trans.).

Spathose adjective (Min.) See Spathic .

Spathose adjective [ See Spathe .] (Botany) Having a spathe; resembling a spathe; spatheceous; spathal.

Spathous adjective (Botany) Spathose.

Spathulate adjective See Spatulate .

Spatial adjective Of or pertaining to space. " Spatial quantity and relations." Latin H. Atwater.

Spatially adverb As regards space.

Spatiate transitive verb [ Latin spatiatus , past participle of spatiari , from spatiatum . See Space .] To rove; to ramble. [ Obsolete] Bacon.

Spatter transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Spattered ; present participle & verbal noun Spattering .] [ From the root of spit salvia.]
1. To sprinkle with a liquid or with any wet substance, as water, mud, or the like; to make wet of foul spots upon by sprinkling; as, to spatter a coat; to spatter the floor; to spatter boots with mud.

Upon any occasion he is to be spattered over with the blood of his people.

Burke.

2. To distribute by sprinkling; to sprinkle around; as, to spatter blood. Pope.

3. Fig.: To injure by aspersion; to defame; to soil; also, to throw out in a defamatory manner.

Spatter intransitive verb To throw something out of the mouth in a scattering manner; to sputter.

That mind must needs be irrecoverably depraved, which, . . . tasting but once of one just deed, spatters at it, and abhors the relish ever after.

Milton.

Spatter-dock noun (Botany) The common yellow water lily ( Nuphar advena ).

Spatterdashed adjective Wearing spatterdashes. [ Colloq.] Thackeray.

Spatterdashes noun plural [ Spatter + dash .] Coverings for the legs, to protect them from water and mud; long gaiters.

Spattle noun Spawl; spittle. [ Obsolete] Bale.

Spattle noun
1. A spatula.

2. (Pottery) A tool or implement for mottling a molded article with coloring matter Knoght.

Spattling-poppy noun [ Prov. English spattle to spit + English poppy .] (Botany) A kind of catchfly ( Silene inflata ) which is sometimes frothy from the action of captured insects.

Spatula noun [ Latin spatula , spathula , dim. of spatha a spatula: French spatule . See Spade for digging.] An implement shaped like a knife, flat, thin, and somewhat flexible, used for spreading paints, fine plasters, drugs in compounding prescriptions, etc. Confer Palette knife , under Palette .

Spatulate adjective [ New Latin spatulatus .] (Nat. Hist.) Shaped like spatula, or like a battledoor, being roundish, with a long, narrow, linear base. [ Also written spathulate .]

Spauld noun [ See Spall the shoulder.] The shoulder. [ Scot.]

Spavin noun [ Middle English spaveyne , Old French esparvain , French éparvin ; akin to Old French espervier a sparrow hawk, French épervier , from Old High German sparwāri (G. sperber ), from Old High German sparo sparrow, because this disease makes the horse raise the infirm leg in the manner of a sparrow hawk or sparrow. See Sparrow .] (Far.) A disease of horses characterized by a bony swelling developed on the hock as the result of inflammation of the bones; also, the swelling itself. The resulting lameness is due to the inflammation, and not the bony tumor as popularly supposed. Harbaugh.

Bog spavin , a soft swelling produced by distention of the capsular ligament of the hock; -- called also blood spavin . -- Bone spavin , spavin attended with exostosis; ordinary spavin.

Spavined adjective Affected with spavin.

Spaw noun See Spa .

Spawl noun A splinter or fragment, as of wood or stone. See Spall .

Spawl noun [ Confer Anglo-Saxon spātl , from spǣtan to spit; probably akin to spīwan , English spew . Confer Spew .] Scattered or ejected spittle.

Spawl intransitive verb & t. [ imperfect & past participle Spawled ; present participle & verbal noun Spawling .] [ Confer Anglo-Saxon spātlian .] To scatter spittle from the mouth; to spit, as saliva.

Why must he sputter, spawl , and slaver it
In vain, against the people's favorite.

Swift.

Spawling noun That which is spawled, or spit out.

Spawn transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Spawned ; present participle & verbal noun Spawning .] [ Middle English spanen , Old French espandre , properly, to shed, spread, Latin expandere to spread out. See Expand .]
1. To produce or deposit (eggs), as fishes or frogs do.

2. To bring forth; to generate; -- used in contempt.

One edition [ of books] spawneth another.

Fuller.

Spawn intransitive verb
1. To deposit eggs, as fish or frogs do.

2. To issue, as offspring; -- used contemptuously.

Spawn noun [ √170. See Spawn , transitive verb ]
1. The ova, or eggs, of fishes, oysters, and other aquatic animals.

2. Any product or offspring; -- used contemptuously.

3. (Hort.) The buds or branches produced from underground stems.

4. (Botany) The white fibrous matter forming the matrix from which fungi.

Spawn eater (Zoology) , a small American cyprinoid fish ( Notropis Hudsonius ) allied to the dace.

Spawner noun
1. (Zoology) A mature female fish.

The barbel, for the preservation or their seed, both the spawner and the milter, cover their spawn with sand.

Walton.

2. Whatever produces spawn of any kind.

Spay transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Spayed ; present participle & verbal noun Spaying .] [ Confer Armor. spac'hein , spaza to geld, W. dyspaddu to geld, Latin spado a eunuch, Greek ....] To remove or extirpate the ovaries of, as a sow or a bitch; to castrate (a female animal).

Spay noun [ Confer Spade a spay, Spay , transitive verb ] (Zoology) The male of the red deer in his third year; a spade.

Spayad, Spayade noun (Zoology) A spay.

Speak intransitive verb [ imperfect Spoke ( Spake Archaic); past participle Spoken ( Spoke , Obsolete or Colloq.); present participle & verbal noun Speaking .] [ Middle English speken , Anglo-Saxon specan , sprecan ; akin to Old French ries. spreka , Dutch spreken , Old Saxon spreken , German sprechen , Old High German sprehhan , and perhaps to Sanskrit sphūrj to crackle, to thunder. Confer Spark of fire, Speech .]
1. To utter words or articulate sounds, as human beings; to express thoughts by words; as, the organs may be so obstructed that a man may not be able to speak .

Till at the last spake in this manner.

Chaucer.

Speak , Lord; for thy servant heareth.

1 Sam. iii. 9.

2. To express opinions; to say; to talk; to converse.

That fluid substance in a few minutes begins to set, as the tradesmen speak .

Boyle.

An honest man, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not.

Shak.

During the century and a half which followed the Conquest, there is, to speak strictly, no English history.

Macaulay.

3. To utter a speech, discourse, or harangue; to adress a public assembly formally.

Many of the nobility made themselves popular by speaking in Parliament against those things which were most grateful to his majesty.

Clarendon.

4. To discourse; to make mention; to tell.

Lycan speaks of a part of Cæsar's army that came to him from the Leman Lake.

Addison.

5. To give sound; to sound.

Make all our trumpets speak .

Shak.

6. To convey sentiments, ideas, or intelligence as if by utterance; as, features that speak of self-will.

Thine eye begins to speak .

Shak.

To speak of , to take account of, to make mention of. Robynson (More's Utopia). -- To speak out , to speak loudly and distinctly; also, to speak unreservedly. -- To speak well for , to commend; to be favorable to. -- To speak with , to converse with. "Would you speak with me?" Shak.

Syn. -- To say; tell; talk; converse; discourse; articulate; pronounce; utter.

Speak transitive verb
1. To utter with the mouth; to pronounce; to utter articulately, as human beings.

They sat down with him upn ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him.

Job. ii. 13.

2. To utter in a word or words; to say; to tell; to declare orally; as, to speak the truth; to speak sense.

3. To declare; to proclaim; to publish; to make known; to exhibit; to express in any way.

It is my father;s muste
To speak your deeds.

Shak.

Speaking a still good morrow with her eyes.

Tennyson.

And for the heaven's wide circuit, let it speak
The maker's high magnificence.

Milton.

Report speaks you a bonny monk.

Sir W. Scott.

4. To talk or converse in; to utter or pronounce, as in conversation; as, to speak Latin.

And French she spake full fair and fetisely.

Chaucer.

5. To address; to accost; to speak to.

[ He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair.

Ecclus. xiii. 6.

each village senior paused to scan
And speak the lovely caravan.

Emerson.

To speak a ship (Nautical) , to hail and speak to her captain or commander.

Speakable adjective
1. Capable of being spoken; fit to be spoken. Ascham.

2. Able to speak. Milton.

Speaker noun
1. One who speaks. Specifically: (a) One who utters or pronounces a discourse; usually, one who utters a speech in public; as, the man is a good speaker , or a bad speaker . (b) One who is the mouthpiece of others; especially, one who presides over, or speaks for, a delibrative assembly, preserving order and regulating the debates; as, the Speaker of the House of Commons, originally, the mouthpiece of the House to address the king; the Speaker of a House of Representatives.

2. A book of selections for declamation. [ U. S.]

Speakership noun The office of speaker; as, the speakership of the House of Representatives.

Speaking adjective
1. Uttering speech; used for conveying speech; as, man is a speaking animal; a speaking tube.

2. Seeming to be capable of speech; hence, lifelike; as, a speaking likeness.

A speaking acquaintance , a slight acquaintance with a person, or one which merely permits the exchange of salutations and remarks on indifferent subjects. -- Speaking trumpet , an instrument somewhat resembling a trumpet, by which the sound of the human voice may be so intensified as to be conveyed to a great distance. -- Speaking tube , a tube for conveying speech, especially from one room to another at a distance. -- To be on speaking terms , to be slightly acquainted.

Speaking noun
1. The act of uttering words.

2. Public declamation; oratory.

Spear noun [ Middle English spere , Anglo-Saxon spere ; akin to D. & German speer , Old Saxon & OHS. sper , Icelandic spjör, plural, Danish spær , Latin sparus .]
1. A long, pointed weapon, used in war and hunting, by thrusting or throwing; a weapon with a long shaft and a sharp head or blade; a lance. [ See Illust. of Spearhead .] "A sharp ground spear ." Chaucer.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

Micah iv. 3.

2. Fig.: A spearman. Sir W. Scott.

3. A sharp-pointed instrument with barbs, used for stabbing fish and other animals.

4. A shoot, as of grass; a spire.

5. The feather of a horse. See Feather , noun , 4.

6. The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.

Spear foot , the off hind foot of a horse. -- Spear grass . (Botany) (a) The common reed. See Reed , noun , 1. (b) meadow grass. See under Meadow . -- Spear hand , the hand in which a horseman holds a spear; the right hand. Crabb. -- Spear side , the male line of a family. Lowell. -- Spear thistle (Botany) , the common thistle ( Cnicus lanceolatus ).

Spear transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Speared ; present participle & verbal noun Spearing .] To pierce with a spear; to kill with a spear; as, to spear a fish.

Spear intransitive verb To shoot into a long stem, as some plants. See Spire . Mortimer.

Spearer noun One who uses a spear; as, a spearer of fish.

Spearfish noun (Zoology) (a) A large and powerful fish ( Tetrapturus albidus ) related to the swordfish, but having scales and ventral fins. It is found on the American coast and the Mediterranean. (b) The carp sucker.