[f. SPAR v.2]
1. The action of fighting or encountering in a special manner (see the vb.) on the part of cocks and pugilists. Also transf., skirmishing.
1686. Blome, Gentl. Recreat., II. 278/2. After they have been thus fed,… take them out of their Pens, and putting a pair of Hots upon each of their Heals,… let them fight, and buffet each other a good while, provided they do not wound or draw Blood of each other, and this is called Sparring of Cocks.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Sparring, among Cock-fighters, is the fighting a Cock with another to breathe him.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. 76. Endeavouring by that sparring to keep off their enemy.
1797. Sporting Mag., X. 320. Nor is the glory of sparring extinguished for ever. Ibid. (1811), XXXVII. 99. A manly stand-up fight, to the exclusion altogether of sparring and shifting.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., viii. The fighting man was … there, stripped for sparring.
1885. New Bk. of Sports, 127. Fifty years ago sparring with the gloves was regarded chiefly as a means to an end.
2. transf. Verbal hitting or skirmishing; engagement in argument or dispute; bandying of words.
1755. J. Shebbeare, Lydia (1769), II. 32. She knew the conversation of the evening would turn upon the subject of the earl’s marriage: and that some gentle sparrings might probably be aimed at her ladyship.
1825. Jefferson, Autobiog., Wks. 1859, I. 11. These gentlemen had had some sparrings in debate before.
1861. Illustr. Lond. N., 18 May, 476/3. A little amusing sparring took place between the lecturer and Mr. Sexton.
1891. W. Clark Russell, Curatica, 81. But let us have done with sparring, and come to business.
3. In attributive uses, as sparring-academy, -lesson, -match, -room, etc.; † sparring-blow (see quots. a. 1700, 1785), also, a hard or severe blow.
1699. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Sparring-blows, the first Strokes to try the goodness of young Cocks Heels; also those in a Battel before the Cocks come to Mouth it.
1701. Rushw., Hist. Coll., IV. I. 139. This Year [1645], had generally been very fatal to his Majesty’s Interests, so it concluded with such a Sparring-Blow as destroy’d almost all hopes of Resource.
1904. Lond. Gaz., No. 4063/4. The … Pens are … very convenient to the sparring and stiving Rooms.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Sparring blows, blows given by cocks before they close, or as the term is, mouth it, used figuratively for words previous to a quarrel.
1807. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (ed. 3), II. xviii. 208. This sparring match is quite a Comedy to me.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xxix. (1879), 261. I’ve got a gent up stairs for a sparring lesson.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, I. xvi. He would have … referred him to his spacious … Sparring Academy.
