Now dial. Also 8– spolt, spoult. [Related to SPALT v.] Of wood: Brittle, short-grained; breaking easily through dryness or decay.
In some dialects also applied to other things.
1567. Golding, Ovid’s Met., X. 100. Nor hazle spalt, nor ash whereof the shafts of speares made bee.
1577. Harrison, England, II. xxii. (1877), I. 341. The parke oke is the softest, and far more spalt and brickle than the hedge oke.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 113. The Beech is more spalt and short in it self than many others be. Ibid., 154. The Wind’s Damage, that is often fatal to some of the Arms of this spalt, brittle Wood.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., s.v. Spolt, The rafters of the church of Norwich are said to be spolt.
1787–. in East Anglian glossaries (in form spoult).
1875. Parish, Sussex Dial., 110.
