spile
/spaɪl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.22 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "So I felt my way down the passage back to the vault, and recked not of the darkness, nor of Blackbeard and his crew, if only I could lay my lips to liquor. Thus I groped about the barrels till near the top of the stack my hand struck on the spile of a keg, and drawing it, I got my mouth to the hold."
- "Now, chamfering one end of the elderberry tube slightly to fit, I push it into the hole and wait. After a few seconds sap will begin to drip from the end of the tube, a tangible flow of life and vitality. […] Beneath the tube, properly called a spile, I place my cup to catch the drips."
- "The bottom of the river is of hard, sparkling white sand, into which spiles are easily driven; and the building and keeping up of such a wharf is a trifling trouble..."
- "[…]we'd settled that I’d pick up some spiles from Greg Fitch first thing on Monday morning and get something done about that fence."
Etymology
From Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile (“splinter, peg”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *spīlaz (“splinter, peg”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“prickle, pointed stick”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian spyl, German Speil (“chip, splinter, gore, wedge”), Danish spile, Dutch spijl.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Obsolete
- American usage
- Transitive verb