speaker 
ervation of order and the regulation of debate muter the 
rules of the House, the use of the casting-vote in case of 
;tn equal division, ami speaking in ^fiit.-ra! rnnnnittee. The 
Speaker in the House of Representatives (as also in the 
.state legislatures) is usually a leader of the party having 
a majority of the members, and has, in addition to the pow- 
ers of the Brit isli Speaker, the power of appointing all com- 
mittees, and the right, as a member, of participating in 
general debate after calling another member to the chair, 
and of voting on all questions rights exercised, however, 
only on important occasions. He is thus in a position to 
control the course of legislation to an important extent, 
and the office is consequently regarded as of great power 
and influence. 
1 hear that about twelve of the Lords met and had cho- 
sen my Lord Manchester speaker of the House of Lords. 
Pepyi, Diary, April 26, 1660. 
In the Lower House the Speaker of the Tudor reigns is 
in very much the same position as the Chancellor in the 
Upper House ; he is the manager of business on the part 
of the crown, and probably the nominee either of the king 
himself or of the chancellor. 
Sttibbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 272. 
Not only that the Standing Committees are the most 
essential machinery of our governmental system, but also 
that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is the 
most powerful functionary of that system. 
W. Wilson, Cong. Gov., p. 108. 
4. A title, and hence a general name, for a 
book containing selections for practice in dec- 
lamation, as at school. [U. S.J 
speakership (spe'ker-ship), . [< xpeaker + 
-snip.'] The office of Speaker in a legislative 
body. 
speaking (spe'king), p. a. Adapted to inform 
or impress as if by speech ; forcibly expressive 
or suggestive ; animated or vivid in appear- 
ance : as, a speaking likeness ; speaking ges- 
tures. 
A representation borrowed, indeed, from the actual 
world, but closer to thought, more speaking and signifi- 
cant, more true than nature and life itself. J. Caird. 
The smallness of Spalato, as compared with the great- 
ness of ancient Salona, is a speaking historical lesson. 
E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 172. 
Speaking demurrer, in (aw, a demurrer which alleges 
or suggests a fact which to be available would require 
evidence, and which therefore cannot avail on demurrer, 
speakingly (spe'king-li), adv. In a speaking 
manner ; so as to produce the effect of speech ; 
very expressively. 
A Mute is one that acteth speakingly, 
And yet sayes nothing. Brome, Antipodes, v. 4. 
speaking-machine (spe'king-ma-shen*), . A 
mechanical contrivance for producing articu- 
late sounds automatically ; a speaking automa- 
ton. 
Kempelen's and Rratzenstein's speaking-machine, in the 
latter part of the last century ; the speaking -machine made 
by Fabermann of Vienna, closely imitating the human 
voice. Encyc. Brit., XV. 208. 
speaking-trumpet (spe'king-trum"pet), n. A 
trumpet-shaped instrument by which the sound 
of the human 
voice is rein- 
forced so that 
it may be heard 
at a great dis- 
tance or above v / 
Other SOUnds, Speaking-trumpet. 
as m hailing , tube ;. bell ;<-. mouthpiece : <t rings 
Ships at Sea Or * r a band by which the trumpet may be 
giving orders at attached to the pelson - 
a fire. In the United States navy a speaking- 
trumpet is the badge of the officer of the deck 
at sea. 
speaking-tube (spe'king-tub), . A tube of 
sheet-tin, gutta-percha, or other material, sen-- 
ing to convey the voice to a distance, as from 
one building to another, or from one part of a 
building to another, as from an upper floor to 
the street-door, or from the rooms of a hotel to 
the office. It is commonly used in connection with an 
annunciator, and is usually fitted at each end with a whis- 
tle for calling attention. 
speaking-voice (spe'king-vois), n. The kind 
of voice used in speaking : opposed to singing- 
voice, or the kind of voice used in singing. 
The singing-voice and the speaking-voice differ in several 
respects : (a) in pitch and inflection, which are arbitrary 
in singing, but conformed to the thought in speaking ; (6) 
in succession of tones, the tones of music being discrete, 
while those of speech are concrete ; (c) in time and em- 
phasis, which in music are more arbitrary and less con- 
formed to the thought than in speech. So great is the 
difference that many persons who have a good voice for 
one use have a very poor voice for the other. 
speal 1 (spel), . Same as spell*, spill?. 
spea! 2 t, An obsolete variant of spall'''. 
speal-bone (spel'bon), . The shoulder-blade. 
Reading the speal-bone, scapulimancy ; divination 
by means of a shoulder-blade. E. B. Tylor, Prim. Cult., 
I. 125. Compare spatulamancy. 
spean (spen), . [< ME. spene, < AS. spana, 
teat, udder; cf. spanan, wean : see spane.] An 
animal's teat. [Old and prov. Eng.] 
5804- 
It hath also four wane* to her paps. 
Topsell, four-footed Beasts, p. 38. (llalliu-eU.) 
spear 1 (sper), M. [< ME. spcrc, pi. </" rr.v, .</ n n, 
< AS. spcre = OS. sper = OFries. S]H-I: x/iiri = 
Hunting-spears, 
I5th or loth century. 
MD. spere, D. speer = MLG. sper, spere = OHG. 
MHG. sper, G. speer (> OF. espier) = Icel. apjiir, 
pi., = Dan. speer, a spear (the L. spurn.*, a 
small missile weapon, dart, hunting-spear, is 
prob. < Teut.) ; perhaps akin to 
spar, a beam, bar: see spur*. 
In def. 7 prob. confused with 
spire 1 .] 1. A weapon consist- 
ing of a penetrating head at- 
tached to a long shaft of wood, 
designed to be thrust by or 
launched from the hand at an 
enemy or at game, spears have 
been used as warlike weapons from 
the earliest times, and were the princi- 
pal reliance of many ancient armies. 
as those of the Greeks, while in others 
they were used coordinately with the 
bow and the sword. They are repre- 
sented by the bayonet in modern ar- 
mies, though some use is still made of 
spears, of which javelins and lances 
are lighter, and pikes heavier, forms. 
Compare cuts under bayonet and pike. 
Whan the! were ouer, thei smyten 
in a-monge hem so vigorously that 
oon myght here the crassinge of spere* half a myle longe. 
Merlin (E. E. T. 8.), ii. 165. 
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their 
spean into pruninghooks. Isa. 11. 4. 
2. A man armed with a spear; a spearman. 
Earl Doorni 
Struck with a knife's haft hard against the board, 
And call'd for flesh and wine to feed his spean. 
Tennyson, Geralnt 
3. A sharp-pointed instrument with barbed 
tines, generally three or four, used for stab- 
bing fish and other animals ; a fish -gig. 4. An 
instrument like or suggestive of ail actual spear, 
as some articles of domestic or mechanical use, 
one of the long pieces fixed transversely to 
the beam or body of chevaux-de-frise, in some 
parts of England a bee's sting, etc. 5. One of 
the pieces of timber which together form the 
main rod of the Cornish pumpmg-engine. 6. 
The feather of a horse. Also called the streak 
of the spear. It is a mark in the neck or near the 
shoulder of some barbs, which is reckoned a sure sign of 
a good horse. 
7. A spire: now used only of the stalks of 
grasses : as, a spear of wheat. 
Tell me the motes, dust, sands, and speares 
Of corn, when Summer shakes his eares. 
Herrick, To 1'ind God. 
The speare or steeple of which churche was fired by 
lightening. 
Lambarde, Perambulation (1596), p. 287. (Halliwetl.) 
Holy spear. Same as holy lance. See lancel. Spear 
pyrites, a variety of marcasite. Spear side, occasionally 
spear half, a phrase sometimes used to denote the male 
line of a family, in contradistinction to dala/or spindle 
side (or half), the female line. See dista/ side, under 
dista/. 
A King who by the spindle-side sprang from both Wil- 
liam and Cerdic, but who by the spear-side had nothing 
to do with either. 
E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest, V. 168. 
To sell under the spear*, to sell by auction : from the 
ancient Roman practice of setting a spear (hasta) in the 
ground at an auction, originally as a sign of the sale of 
military booty. 
My lords the senators 
Are sold for slaves, their wives for bondwomen, . . . 
And all their goods, under the spear, at outcry. 
/;. Jonson, Catiline, ii. 
spear 1 (sper), r. [X .spear 1 , .] I. traiw. To 
pierce or strike with a spear or similar weapon : 
as, to spear fish. 
The [Australian] youngsters generally celebrated the 
birth of a lamb by spearing it. 
C. Reade, Never too Late to Mend, Ii. 
The Mayfly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow spear'd by 
the shrike. Tennyson, Maud, iv. 4. 
II. intrans. To shoot into a long stem ; ger- 
minate, as barley. See spire*. 
The single blade [of wheat] spears first into three, then 
into five or more side-shoots. Science, VII. 174. 
spear 2 t (sper), v. An obsolete form of speer*. 
spear-billed (sper'bild), a. Having a long, 
straight, and sharp bill, beak, or rostrum : as, 
the spear-billed grebes of the genus Mchmo- 
phorus. See cut under Jfchmophorus. Coues. 
spear-dog (sper'dog), . The common piked 
dog-fish, Squalus acanthias or Acanthias vulgaris. 
[Local, Eng.] 
spearer (sper'er), . [< spear* + -er*.~\ 1. One 
who spears. 2. A person armed with a spear, 
whether for war or for ceremony. 
spear-fish (sper'fish), n. 1. A catostomoid fish 
of the genus Carpiudex, C. eyprinuy, a kind of 
spearmint 
carp-sucker, also railed .tiiihisli. xl;inilitirl;, ami 
1/nillliiK-/,: It is common from the Mississippi 
valley to Chesapeake Bay. 2. The bill-fish, 
Tctrajihir/is ulliiiliix, belonging to the family 
Ilixtiiiplioridee, or sailtishes. The dorsal fln is low 
or moderately developed, and the ventrals are represented 
Spear-fish ( Tctriipturits albidits . 
only by spines. It inhabits American waters as far north 
as New England in summer, and is not seldom taken in 
the sword-fishery. In tropical seas its horizon is about 100 
fathoms deep. The spear-fish is related to the sword fish 
(though of another family), and has a similar beak or 
sword. It attains a length of six or eight feet. In the 
Wist Indies its Spanish name is ayvja. Compare cut 
under gailfah. 
spear-flower (sper'flou"er), . A tree or shrub 
of the large tropical and subtropical genus 
Arilisin of the Mi/rsinete. .The species arc mostly 
hundsome with white or red flowers and pea-form fruit, 
often blue. The name translates Ardisia, which alludes 
to the sharp segments of the calyx. 
spear-foot (sper'fut), . The off or right hind 
foot of a horse. 
spear-grass (sper'gras), n. 1. A name of va- 
rious species of Agrostis, bent-grass, of Ayropy- 
ritm repens, quitch-grass, of Alopecxriis agrestis, 
foxtail, and perhaps of some other grasses. 
The spear-grass of Shakspere, according to Ellacombe, 
is the quitch-grass; according to Prior, it is the common 
reed, Paraymites cutmnunis. [Old or prov. Eng. ] 
To tickle our noses with spear-grass to make them 
bleed. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4. 340. 
2. The June-grass, or Kentucky blue-grass, Poa 
pratensis (see cut under Poa) ; also other spe- 
cies of the genus. P. annva is the low or annual spear- 
grass. It is so called from the lance-shaped spikelets. 
(See meadow-grass.) The name is said to be applied 
also to the porcupine-grass, on account of its awns. 
[U.S.] 
3. In New Zealand, a name of one or two plants 
of the umbelliferous genus Aciphylla : so called 
from their long grass-like leaflets, which have 
hard and sharp points. 
spear-hand (sper'hand), . The right hand or 
the right side, as distinguished from the sliieM- 
hand. 
spear-head (sper'hed), n. The head of a spear. 
It IB always pointed, and of iron or steel among people 
who know the use of iron, but anciently of bronze, and 
among some savage peoples of stone, bone, or the like. The 
form varies from that of a long double-edged blade which 
with its socket is two feet or more in length, as was com- 
mon in throwing-spears of the Franks and Saxons, to the 
head of the fourteenth-century lance, which was a mere 
pointing of the wooden shaft with steel and only a few 
inches in length. The spear-head is often barbed, some- 
times serrated or wavy, etc. Compare coronal, 2, also 
pttum, lancet , javelin. 
spear-hook (sper'huk), . Same as spring-hook. 
spear-javelin (sper'jav'lin), . Same as/rn- 
mea, 1. 
spear-leafed lily. See lily, 1. 
spear-lily (sper'lil'i), n. A plant of one of 
three species of the Australian genus Doryan- 
tlies of the Amaryllidese. It has partly the habit 
of Agave, having a cluster of over one hundred sword- 
shaped leaves at the base, an erect stem, in l>. excelsa from 
10 to 18 feet high, with a dense terminal head of red flow- 
ers. The leaves of that species contain a fiber suitable 
for rope- and paper-making. 
spearman (sper'man), n. ; pi. spearmen (-men). 
[<ME. sperman; (spear* + ?an.] 1. One who 
uses or is armed with a spear; especially, a sol- 
dier whose spear is his principal weapon. Com- 
pare lancer, lans- 
quenet, pikeman*. 
Wily as an eel that stirs 
the mud 
Thick overhead, so baf- 
fling spearman's thrust. 
Browning, Ring and 
[Book, II. 162. 
2. A book-name for 
any leaf-beetle of 
the genus Dory- 
phora. The Colo- 
rado potato-beetle, 
D. decemlineata, is 
the ten-lined spear- 
man. See cut un- 
der beetle. 
spearmint (sper'- 
mint), . [Said to 
be a corruption of 
spire-mint, with ref. 
to the pyramidal in- 
florescence.] An 
Spearmint (Mtntha virfdis), up- 
per part of the stem with the inflores- 
cence, a, a flower. 
