a. Obs. Also speer. [Of obscure origin.] Frail, delicate.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 468. Spere, or fres (K. freshe or brityl, P. britill or brekyll), fragilis.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 221. My chayere is my body of speer brotyl & rotyn bonys, in whiche my soule sytteth.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Hawking, e viii b. She may be callid a Spere hawke for of all the hawkys that ther be she is moost spere, that is to say moost tendre to kepe.
