apency 
spency (spen'si), a, : \>\. *ywiV.s (-siz). The 
stormy petrel, Procellaria pclagira. C. Swain- 
son. [Shetland Isles.] 
spend 1 (spend), c. ; pret. and pp. spent (for- 
merly sometimes spended), ppr. .*/>< luting. [< 
ME. spenden (pret. spendc, pp. upended, ispend), 
< AS. spendau, spend (also in comp. d-spcndan, 
for-spendan) = OHG. spenton, MHO. xpenten, 
spenden, G. spenden = Sw. spendera = Dan. 
spendere = It. dispendere, spendere = Sp. Pg. de- 
spender = OF. despeiidn; F. dfpendrc, < ML. 
.ipi-ndere, L. dispendere, pay out, dispend: see 
dispend. Cf. expend, and see spense, spenser, 
etc.] I. ft-ajis. 1. To pay or give out for the 
satisfaction of need, or the gratification of de- 
sire ; part with for some use or purpose ; ex- 
pend; lay out: used of money, or anything of 
exchangeable value. 
The moore thou spendtit, the lease thou haat. 
Hymns to Virgin, etc. (E. E. T. 8.), p. 01. 
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not 
bread? Isa. Iv. 2. 
The oils which we do spend in England for our cloth 
are brought out of Spain. 
J. Campion (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 56). 
2. To impart; confer; bestow for any reason ; 
dispense. 
As help me Crist as I in fewe yeeres 
Have spended [var. spent] upon diverse maner freres 
Ful many a pound, yet fare I never the bet. 
Chaucer, Summoner's Tale, 1. 242. 
I will but spend a word here in the house, 
And go with you. Shak., Othello, 1. 2. 48. 
3. To consume; use up; make away with ; dis- 
pose of in using. 
They were without prouision of victuals, but onely a 
little bread, which they spent by Thursday at night. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, I. 276. 
My last breath cannot 
Be better spent than to say I forgive you. 
Beau, and Fl., Knight of Malta, ill. 2. 
4. To pass ; employ ; while away : used of time, 
or of matters implying time. 
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go 
down to the grave. Job xxl. 13. 
I would not spend another such a night, 
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days. 
Shak., Rich. III., L 4. 5. 
5. To waste or wear out by use or action ; incur 
the loss of. See phrase to spend a mast, below. 
What's the matter, 
That you unlace your reputation thus, 
And spend your rich opinion for the name 
Of a night-brawler? Shak., Othello, ii. 3. 196. 
6. To exhaust of means, force, strength, con- 
tents, or the like; impoverish; enfeeble: only 
in the passive. See spent. 
Their bodies spent with long labour and thirst. 
Knottes, Hist Turks. (Latham.) 
They could have no design to themselves in this work, 
thus to expose themselves to scorn and abuse, to spend 
and be spent. Penn, Rise and Progress of Quakers, iii. 
Faintly thence, as pines far sighing, 
Or as thunder spent and dying, 
Come the challenge and replying. 
Whittier, The Eauger. 
7f. To cause the expenditure of; cost. 
It spent me so little time after your going that, although 
you speak in your letter of good dispatch in your going, 
yet I might have overtaken you. Donne, Letters, cxv. 
The main business, which spent the most time, and 
caused the adjourning of the court, was about the removal 
of Newtown. Winthrop, Hist. New England, 1. 167. 
To spend a mast, to break, lose, or carry away a mast in 
sailing ; incur the loss of a mast 
He spent his mast in fair weather, and having gotten a 
new at Cape Anne, and towing it towards the bay, he lost 
it by the way. Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 74. 
To spend ground, to excavate in mining ; mine. (Corn- 
wall, Eng.] To spend the mouth*, to bark violently, 
give tongue ; bay. 
Then do they (hounds] spend their mouths; Echo replies, 
As if another chase were in the skies. 
Shak., Venus and Adonis, 1. 695. 
To spend upt, to use up ; consume improvidently ; waste. 
There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling 
of the wise ; but a foolish man spendeth it up. 
Prov. xxi. 20. 
II. intrans. 1. To pay or lay out; make ex- 
penditure of money, means, strength, or any- 
thing of value. 
He spendeth, iousteth, niaketh festeynynges. 
Chaucer, Troilus, iii. 1718. 
Get ere thou spend, then shalt thou bid 
Thy friendly friend good morrowe. 
Babees Boo*(E. E. T. 3.), p. 98. 
To spend in all things else, 
But of old friends to be most miserly. 
LoweU, Under the Willows. 
2. To be lost or wasted; be dissipated or con- 
sumed; go to waste: as, the candles spend fast. 
5817 
The sound spendeth and is dissipated in the open air. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist., 121). 
3. Specifically, to emit semen, milt, or spawn. 
See spent, 2. 
spend- (spend), v. t. [A var. of spcn.~\ To 
span; grasp with the hand or fingers. Halli- 
well. [Prov. Eng.] 
He sawe the Uuglas to the deth was dyght, 
llespendyd a spear, a trust! tre. 
Hunting of the Cheviot (Child's Ballads, VII. 37). 
spendable (speii'da-bl), a. [< spendl + -able.] 
That may be spent ; proper to be used for cur- 
rent needs: as, spendable income. [Rare.] 
spend-all (spend'al), n. [< spend 1 , v., + obj. 
all.] A spendthrift ; a prodigal. 
Nay, thy wife shall be enamored of some spend-all, 
which shall wast all as licentiously as thou hast heaped 
together laboriously. Man in the Moone (1609). (A'ora.) 
spender (spen'der), n. [< ME. spendere, spen- 
dare; < spend 1 + -er 1 .] One who or that which 
spends or wastes ; used absolutely, a spend- 
thrift. 
You've been a spender, a vain spender; wasted 
Your stock of credit and of wares unthriftily. 
Ford, Fancies, ii. 1. 
Very rich men in England are much freer spenders than 
they are here. The American, VI. 217. 
Spergularia 
The *}H'm-'T raiiM- with kryrs in Ills hand, 
Opened the doore ;iml them ;tt ilinurr falld. 
iii, Moral Fables, p. 12. 
[< ME. spendyng, 
1. The act of 
spending (spen'ding), n. 
spendynge; verbal n. of spend, v.] 
paying out money. 2f. Beady money ; cash ; 
means. 
Yf thou fayle ony spendynge, 
Com to Robyn Hode. 
LyteU Oeste of Robyn Hade (Child's Ballads, V. 92). 
3. Seminal emission. 
spending-money(spen'ding-mun // i), . Money 
provided or used for small personal expenses ; 
pocket-money for incidental outlay. 
Spending-silverKspen'ding-siFver^M. [< ME. 
spending-silver ; < spending + silver.] Money 
for expenses; spending-money; cash. 
And spending silver hadde he ryght ynow. 
Chaucer, Canon's Yeoman's Tale, 1. 7. 
For of thy spendynge sylver, monk, 
Thereof wyll I ryght none. 
LyteU Qeste of Robyn Hode (Child's Ballads, V. 87). 
spendthrift (spend'thrift), n. and a. [< spend 1 , 
v., + obj. thrift.] I. n. One who spends lav- 
ishly, improvidently, or foolishly ; an unthrifty 
spender ; a prodigal. 
What pleasure can the miser's fondled hoard, 
Or spendthrift's prodigal excess, afford? 
Cowper, In Memory of John Thornton. 
II. a. Wastefully spending or spent ; lavish; 
improvident ; wasteful ; prodigal : as, a spend- 
thrift heir ; spendthrift ways. 
And then this "should " is like a spendthrift sigh, 
That hurts by easing. Shak,, Hamlet, iv. 7. 123. 
Spendthrift alike of money and of wit. 
Cowper, Table-Talk, 1. 684. 
spendthrifty (spend' thrif'ti), a. [< spendthrift 
+ -i/ 1 .] Lavish; wasteful; prodigal. [Bare.] 
Spendthrifty, unclean, and ruffian-like courses. 
Rogers, Naaman the Syrian, p. 611. 
spense (spens), n. [Also spence; < ME. spense, 
spence, < OF. spense, spence, espense, expense, 
expense (see expense); in ME. partly by apher- 
esis from dispense, < OF. despense, expense, also 
a larder, buttery, etc., < despendre, spend: see 
expense, dispense, and cf. spend 1 , spenser.] If. 
Expense ; expenditure of money. 
So he sped hym by spies, & spense of his gode. 
That the lady fro hir lord lyuely he stale. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1S692. 
For better is cost upon somewhat worth than spense 
upon nothing worth. 
Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. 1864), p. 115. 
2. A buttery; a larder; a cellar or other place 
where provisions are kept. [Obsolete and prov. 
Eng.] 
Al vinolent as bottle in the spence. 
Chaucer, Summoner's Tale, 1. 223. 
Yn the spence, a tabell planke, and ij. sylwes [shelves]. 
English Oilds(E. E. T. S.), p. S27. 
Bluff Harry broke into the spence, 
And turn'd the cowls adrift. 
Tennyson, Talking Oak. 
3. The apartment of a house where the fam- 
ily sit and eat. [Prov. Eng. and Scotch.] 
spensert (spen'ser), . [Also spencer; Sc. 
spensar; < ME. spenser, spencere, spensere, also 
despenser, < OF. despencier, despensier (ML. dis- 
pensarius), dispenser, spenser, < despense, ex- 
pense: see dispenser, spense. Hence the sur- 
names Spencer, Spenser.] A steward or butler ; 
a dispenser. 
Cesar heet his spenser jeve the Greke his money. 
Trevisa, tr. of Higden's Polychronicon, IV. 309. 
Spenserian (spun-so'ri-an), . and . [< </- 
,srr (sec del', and .-./' HXI r \ + -i-un.] I. a. Of 
") pertaining to the English poet Edmund 
Spenser (died !.">!)!); specifically, noting the 
style of versification adopted by Spenser in his 
"Faerie Queene." Itconsista of a strophe of eight 
decasyllabic lines and an Alexandrine, with three rimes, 
the first and third line forming one, the second, fourth. 
fifth, and seventh another, ami the sixth, eighth, and 
ninth the third. It is the stateliest of English measures, 
and is used by Thomson in his ''Castle of Indolence," by 
Byron in his "Childe Harold," etc. 
II. n. The poetical measure of Spenser's 
"FaerieQueene"; a Spenserian verse orstauza. 
O. W. Holmes, Poetry. 
spent (spent), p. a. [Pp. of spend 1 , v.] 1. Nearly 
or quite exhausted or worn out; having lost 
force or vitality ; inefficient ; impotent : gen- 
erally in a comparative sense. A spent deer or 
other animal is one that has been chased or wounded 
nearly to death. A spent ball is a flying ball (from a gun) 
that has so nearly lost its impulse as to be unable to pene- 
trate an object struck by it, though it may occasionally 
inflict a dangerous contused wound. A spent bill of lading 
or other commercial document is one that has fulfilled its 
purpose and should be canceled. 
The forme of his style there, compared with Tullies 
writyng, is but euen the talke of a spent old man. 
Ascham, The Scholemaster, p. 152. 
Mine eyes, like spent lamps glowing out, grow heavy. 
Fletcher, Sea Voyage, Iii. 1. 
2. Exhausted by spending or spawning; offish, 
having spawned. 
speos (spe'os), n. [< Gr. antof, a cave.] In 
Egypt, archseol., a temple or part of a temple, 
or a tomb of some architectural importance, as 
distinguished from a mere tunnel or syringe, 
excavated in the solid rock ; a grotto-temple or 
tomb, as at Bern-Hassan (see cut under hypo- 
geum) and Abou Simbel (Ipsamboul). The 
larger speos of Abou Simbel is about 169 feet deep, and 
has all the parts of a complete open-air Egyptian temple. 
SpeotytO (spe-ot'i-to), n. [NL. (Gloger, 1842), 
* Gr. oTreof, a cave, + rvru, the night-owl.] An 
American genus of Strigidse, containing several 
species of small long-legged earless owls which 
live in treeless regions and burrow in the 
ground, as S. citnieulariaotthe pampas of South 
America and S. hypogsea of the prairies of west- 
ern North America; the burro wing owls. A variety 
of the latter also inhabits Florida, and the genus is like- 
wise represented in the West Indies. S. hypogxa is the 
species which is found in association with prairie-dogs and 
spermophiles, giving rise to many exaggerated accounts 
of the relation between the bird and the mammal. These 
owls were formerly placed in the genus Athene, and were 
also called Pholeoptynx. See cuts under owl. 
spert, v. t. A variant of spar^. 
Sperable 1 ! (spe'ra-bl), a. [< L. sperabilis, that 
may be hoped for, < sperare, hope, < spes, hope.] 
Capable of being hoped for ; affording grounds 
of hope. 
Wherin, suerly perceaving his own cause not speraMe. 
he doth honorably and wisely. 
Sir W. Cecil (June 3, 1565), in Ellis's Hist. Letters, 2d ser., 
(clxxii. 
sperable-t, " An obsolete form of sparable. 
speraget, H. Same as spar age. 
speratet(spe'rat), a. [< L. speratus, pp. of spe- 
rare, hope.] Hoped for; not hopeless: op- 
posed to desperate. In old law, in determining whether 
debts to a testator, the right to collect which devolved 
upon the executor, were assets to be accounted for by him, 
though not collected, regard had to be had to their charac- 
ter, whether they were sperate or desperate. 
spercleti * A Middle English form of sparkle. 
speret. An old spelling of spear 1 , speer 1 . 
sphere. 
Spergllla (sper'gu-lii), n. [NL. (Dillenius, 1719), 
named from its scattering its seeds ; < L. spar- 
gere, scatter: see sparge.] A genus of poly- 
petalous plants, of the order Caryophyllaceee 
and tribe Jtoinea?. It is characterized by the presence 
of small scarious stipules, by flowers with five styles alter- 
nate with the five sepals, and by a one-celled capsule with 
its five valves opposite the sepals. There are 2 or 3 species, 
widely scattered through temperate regions of either hemi- 
sphere, and especially abundant in fields and cultivated 
places of the Old World. They are annual herbs with 
dichotomous or clustered branches, the swollen and suc- 
culent axils bearing apparent whorls of awl-shaped leaves. 
The small white or pink flowers form raceme-like cymes 
with conspicuous pedicels. The species are known by the 
general name of spurry, sometimes sandwfed. 
Spergularia (sper-gu-la'ri-a),n. [NL. (Persoon. 
1805), < fSperr/ula + -aria.] A genus of polypeta- 
lous plants, of the order Caryojtiyllaceee&na tribe 
Alsinese. It is distinguished from the allied genus Sper- 
gula by its three styles and three-valved capsule, and differs 
from Arenaria, to which it was formerly referred, in the 
possession of stipules. There are 3 or 4 species, scattered 
through temperate regions, especially along salt-marshes 
and shores. They are commonly diffuse herbs, small and 
often succulent, with thread-like or linear leaves, often, as 
