spall

spall

See also: Spall

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɔːl/

• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɔːl

Etymology 1

From Middle English spalle (“a chip”) (first documented in 1440), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from the Middle English verb spald (“to split”) (c.1400), from Middle Low German spalden, cognate with Old High German spaltan (“to split”).

Alternative forms

• spawl

Noun

spall (plural spalls)

1. A splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, p. 13:

     My father knew Bert Le Feuvre, the foreman of Griffith's yard, and there was a little heap of spawls waiting ready every night in summer after school for me to crack.

Translations

splinter of stone

Bulgarian: отломък (bg) m (otlomǎk) Finnish: siru (fi) Polish: odłamek (pl) m Romanian: așchie (ro) Russian: обло́мок (ru) m (oblómok), оско́лок (ru) m (oskólok) Serbo-Croatian: ulomak (sh) m

Verb

spall (third-person singular simple present spalls, present participle spalling, simple past and past participle spalled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To break into fragments or small pieces.
   • 1778, William Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis: A Treatise on Minerals, Mines, and Mining […]

     Cobbed Ore is the ſpalled which is broke out of the ſolid large ſtones with ſledges

   • 2021 May 5, Paul Stephen, “Restoring the glory of Ribblehead”, in RAIL, number 930, page 39:

     Drones will give an idea of the worst bits, but if it's lightly spalled then I don't know if they will necessarily see that.

2. (transitive) To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.

Related terms

• spaller
• spalling

Translations

to break into fragments

Bulgarian: ломя (bg) (lomja), троша (bg) (troša) Finnish: pirstaloitua, sirpaloitua, mennä säpäleiksi Polish: rozpaść się Serbo-Croatian: istucati (sh)

Etymology 2

From Italian spalla.

Noun

spall (plural spalls)

1. (obsolete, rare) The shoulder.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 30, page 265:

     Their mightie ſtrokes their haberieons diſmayld, / And naked made each others manly ſpalles; […]

Anagrams

• Palls, palls