spuddle
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To loosen and dig up stubble and weeds left after a harvest with a broadshare or similar device.
verb
To shallowly dig or stir up in an unsystematic manner.
Example Sentences
- "Do you shim those stubbles before ploughing? Answer. No; but I spuddle them, to make the ground as clean as possible. Spuddling is performed with the plough, and is of the nature of shiming."
- "In order to destroy what few weeds may remain in the rows, and to give that part of the ground its due share of pulverization, and to cleanse it from the bean haulm, a plough is set to work soon after harvest, to spuddle the gratten; and for this purpose a plate of iron is fixed across the share at about four or five inches from the point, and the same axletree and wheels are made use of that were before employed for striking out the furrows; and with this plough and two horses, three acres of ground may be spuddled in a day, by setting the share point in the interval, so that the iron or fin may embrace a row on each side; and when the whole field is thus spuddled, the harrows and roll are to succeed, by which the haulm and weeds will be completely extricated at a trifling charge, and the ground be laid in readiness for ploughing the seed furrows, at which time those beans or pease which may have been shed, will have vegetated, and are destroyed by the plough; so that the farmer may from this mode of husbandry be not less confident of growing a clean sample of wheat, than if his ground had been summer fallowed."
- "When land proves to be very foul after harvest, it is best, first to shallow, spuddle, or broadshare the surface, harrow up the weeds, cart them to a mixen, or burn them on the spot:"
- "Thus the Kent farmer with his long-cherished wooden plough, for which he has been the recipient of much ridicule, converts this same wooden plough into a broadshare as soon as his corn is cut, and with this ancient implement proceeds to “broadshare“ spuddle his stubbles."
- "Instead of an "occasional gardener" to trim up the walks, and to hoe, your wife will be as happy as a queen, and your daughters as princesses, to spuddle about now and then, and have little flower gardens, and herb beds."
- "Hee grubs and spuddles for his prey in muddy holes and obscure cauernes, my Mufe ferrits base debaushed wretches in their swinish dens."
Etymology
Possibly from the Middle English term for a short knife, by extension, leading to the shallow plow, and from there to other more metaphoric meanings. Related to spud.