S P L 
485 
SPLENT, s. [spivella, Ital.] A callous hard substance, 
or an insensible swelling', which breeds on or adheres to the 
shank-bone of a horse. Farrier's Diet .—A splint or splin¬ 
ter. See Splint. 
To SPLICE, v. a. [splissen, Dutch; plico, Lat.] To 
join the two ends of a rope without a knot. 
SPLINT, s. [ splinter , Teut., and also splentcr, and 
splatter, the same; from sp/ijten, to split, to cleave. An 
old form of our word is splent.] A fragment of wood in 
general.—A thin piece of wood or other matter used by chi- 
rurgeons to hold the bone newly set in its place.—The an¬ 
cients, after the seventh day, used splints, which not only 
kept the members steady, but straight; and of these some 
are made of tin, others of scabbard and wood, sowed up in 
linen cloths. Wiseman. 
To SPLINT, v. a. To shiver; to tear asunder; to break 
into fragments. Florio. —To secure by splints. 
The broken rancour of your high swoln hearts, 
But lately splinted, knit, and join’d together. 
Must gently be preserv’d, cherish’d, and kept. Shakspeare. 
SPLI'NTER, s. [splinter, Teut.] A fragment of any 
thing broken with violence.—He was slain upon a course at 
tilt, one of the splinters of Montgomery’s staff going in at 
his beaver. Bacon. — A thin piece of wood.—A plain Indian 
fan, used by the meaner sort, made of the small stringy parts 
of roots, spread out in a round flat form, and so bound toge¬ 
ther with a splinter hoop, and strengthened with small bars 
on both sides. Grew. 
To SPLI'NTER, v. a. To shiver; to break into frag¬ 
ments.—To secure by splints; to support.—This broken 
joint entreat her to splinter, and this crack of your love shall 
grow stronger than it was before. Shakspeare. 
To SPLI'NTER, v. n. To be broken into fragments; to 
be shivered. 
To SPLIT, v. a. pret. and part. pass, split, \spliften, 
spliften, Teut., from the Icel. splita, to tear.] To cleave ; 
to rive; to divide longitudinally in two. 
Do’t, and thou hast the one half of my heart 
Do’t not, thou splitt'st thine own. Shakspeare. 
To divide; to part.—Their logic has appeared the mere 
art of wrangling, and their metaphysicks the skill of split¬ 
ting an hair, of distinguishing without a difference. Watts. 
—To dash and break on a rock.—God’s desertion, as a full 
and violent wind, drives him in an instant, not to the har¬ 
bour, but on the rock where he will be irrecoverably split. 
Dec. of Chr. Piety .—To divide; to break into discord.— 
In states notoriously irreligious, a secret and irresistible power 
splits their counsels, and smites their most refined policies 
with frustration and a curse. South. 
To SPLIT, v. n. To burst in sunder; to crack; to suffer 
disruption.—A huge vessel of exceeding hard marble split 
asunder by congealed water. Boyle. —To burst with laugh¬ 
ter. 
Each had a gravity would make you split. 
And shook his head at M—y as a wit. Pope. 
To be broken against rocks. 
After our ship did split, 
When you, and the poor number sav’d with you. 
Hung on our driving boat. Shakspeare. 
SPLIT ROCK CREEK, a river of the United States, 
fn Louisiana, which runs into the Missouri; 170 miles west 
of Mississippi. , 
SPLITTER, s. One who splits. 
How should we rejoice, if, like Judas the first. 
Those splitters of parsons in sunder should burst! Swift. 
SPLUGEN, a petty village in the east of Switzerland, in 
the canton of the Grisons, remarkable as forming a station 
or pass on the usual road from the Grisons to Como, in Italy; 
16 miles north-west of Chiavenna. 
SPLU'TTER, s. [perhaps a corruption of sputter.] 
Bustle; tumult. A low word. 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1585. 
S P o 
To SPLU'TTER, v. n. To speak hastily and confusedly. 
—A Dutchman came into the secretary’s office, spluttering 
and making a great noise. Carleton. 
SPODDEN, a small river of England, in Lancashire. 
SPOFFORTH, a parish of England, West Riding of 
Yorkshire; 3 miles north-west of Wetherby. Population 
2857. 
To SPOIL, v. a. [spolio, Lat., spolier, Fr.] To seize 
by robbery ; to take away by force.—Ye took joyfully the 
spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have 
in heaven an enduring substance. Ileb. 
This mount 
With all his verdure spoil'd, and trees adrift. Milton. 
To plunder; to strip of goods: with of before the thing 
taken.—Yielding themselves upon the Turk’s faith, for the 
safety-guard of their liberty and goods, they were most in¬ 
juriously spoiled of all that they had. Knol/es. —To cor¬ 
rupt; to mar; to make useless. [This is properly spill, 
j-pillan, Sax.] Beware lest any man spoil you, through 
philosophy and vain deceit. Col. 
To SPOIL, v. n. To practise robbery or plunder.— 
England was infested with robbers and outlaws, which, 
lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil. 
Spenser. —To grow useless; to be corrupted.— He that 
gathered a hundred bushels of acorns, or apples, had thereby 
a property in them: he was only to look that he used them 
before they spoiled, else he robbed others. Locke. 
SPOIL, s. [spoliutn, Lat.] That which is taken by vio¬ 
lence; that which is taken from any enemy; plunder; pil¬ 
lage; booty. 
The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword; 
For I have loaden me with many spoils. 
Using no other weapon but his name. . Shakspeare. 
That which is gained by strength or effort. 
But grant our heroes hopes long toil 
And comprehensive genius crown, 
Each science and each art his spoil. 
Yet what reward, or what renown ? 
That which is taken from another. 
Gentle gales, 
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense 
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole 
These balmy spoils. 
The act of robbery; robbery; waste. 
Go and speed! 
Havock, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain. 
Corruption; cause of corruption.—Company, 
company, hath been the spoil of me. Shakspeare. —The 
slough; the cast-off skin of a serpent.—Snakes, the rather 
for the casting of their spoil, live till they be old. Bacon. 
SPO'ILER, s. A robber; a plunderer; a pillager. 
Such ruin of her manners Rome 
Doth suffer now, as she’s become 
Both her own spoiler and own prey. B. Jonson. 
One who mars or corrupts any thing. 
SPO'ILFUL, adj. Wasteful; rapacious. 
Having oft in battles vanquished 
Those spoilful Piets, and swarming Easterlings, 
Long time in peace his realm established. Spenser. 
SPOKE, s. [j-pac, j-paca, Sax.; spciche. Germ.; spaeckc, 
Teut.] The bar of a wheel that passes from the nave to the 
felly. « 
All you gods, 
In general synod take away her power; 
Break all the spokes and fellies of her wheel, 
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven. 
Shakspeare. 
The spar of a ladder.—The spoaks by which they scal’d 
so high. Lovelace. 
6 H SPOKE, 
Bentley. 
Milton. 
Milton. 
villainous 
